Shadowed Enigma
by Seraph of Enigma
Summary: Earth and Skylands were once one but an event in the past caused Earth to forget Skylands and magic. When Skylanders were called back from centuries long banishment on Earth magic leaked back in. Suddenly Earth was jolted with the knowledge that they were not alone as residents between worlds swapped places. Now the barrier between worlds is broken and the Darkness wants Earth. AU.
1. Prologue

**Shadowed Enigma**

**Prologue**

_Magic and Earth are like oil and water. It wasn't always as such but the progression of time brought many changes. There was a time when Earth and Skylands were linked but something severed that link in the distant past. Perhaps it was the Arkeyans during the height of their empire or perhaps it was the results of some cataclysm on Earth. Our most archaic history books speak only of a one-time connection but not of what caused the separation._

_Skylands never forgot Earth even though Earth forgot Skylands. Earth became a bedtime story told to the children of Skylands. It was a strange place that stole magic from the bones of those that visited it. It was a void, a devourer of natural talents and re-shaper of lives. It was said Earth was cursed, to be from Skylands and go there was to surrender all freedom and become lifeless but eternally aware and immortal. It was a prison of body and mind. It was no wonder Earth was considered a nightmarish land._

_When Kaos, the most powerful of the Dark Portal Masters (or Raiders as we know them) tried to banish the army that opposed him, the Skylanders, to Earth fear gripped them and made them desperate to defeat him. He nearly succeeded in his mission. I couldn't allow it to happen. I made a choice that day and sacrificed myself to save the people Skylands looked to for protection. I merged with the Core of Light; our beacon of hope and ward against the Darkness that threatens to consume all in its path. My choice destroyed all future attempts to banish the forces of good to any world. Kaos was not happy with the outcome and shifted his attempts to corrupting those that opposed him. He tried to control the Darkness and it cost him his life in the end. He was the only unifying force in the ranks of the Dark Masters. They have dissolved into petty squabbles over power while the Skylanders and elite Light Masters, my Archons, keep a unified front._

_Allow me to better explain things. I am Eon. For the longest time, centuries to be exact, I was the only Portal Master of Light. I was informally and more widely referred to as a Guardian; the title has transferred to my protégés as well. Portal Masters are powerful individuals that wield the power of Light or Darkness alongside their raw natural talent in one of the eight neutral elements of the world. It is this affinity to the building blocks of the universe, light versus dark that gives them the ability to open portals across space and even time in rare instances. Portals are not limited to just Skylands; it is possible to span worlds with these gateways as well._

_It is dangerous however to permit free travel between worlds via portals. Magic, energy and even thoughts begin to bleed through the barriers that separate the worlds and change both. Some changes are for the better and some are for the worse. Ten thousand years ago the first Skylanders were banished to Earth. They remained there until recently. One hundred years ago another group of Skylanders was sent to Earth. They too have now returned. But the return of both groups has caused the protective cocoon of 'nothing' around the Earth to fail. Magic has entered the world and the sudden appearance of it there has caused anomalies that have moved people between Skylands and Earth without a Portal Master's guidance. It's a disaster and has shaken Earth with the knowledge that they are not alone in the universe._

_It is these random events that have people of Earth and Skylands frightened. They can happen at any time and to anyone. The young and the old have been unwillingly moved between the worlds. Earth has not taken well to the unfortunate souls trapped there. Skylands however embraces the humans that come to us and makes the effort to return them home. Skylands residents on Earth rarely get to come back home. We have lost Guardians when they tried to return the wayward travelers. It is upsetting to say the least to find Earth mistrusts us so much. Though I cannot blame them. They simply don't understand the risks involved; how could they if they don't even understand magic? The magic between the worlds is still unbalanced and not always do our efforts to bridge the gap go well. Portals don't always work like we expect them to when travel to and from Earth is involved. It is still dangerous to open portals between the worlds. Sometimes the portals are disrupted and those traveling can be sent somewhere random or never emerge from the void between portals. The only way we can assure safe passage is by having a Guardian on each world open a portal together and strengthen it. But with Earth actively hunting anyone from Skylands it is dangerous to have a Guardian there._

_Our missing people are not all Earth has to contend with. As the void between the worlds weakens it allows a tremendous force of evil to creep into a world that had been protected from it before. The Darkness of Skylands is sentient and it is the Skylanders backed by the equally sentient Light that hold it in check. Without the proper forces on Earth to combat it the people will be ill prepared for its assault and will assault it with the weapons they always use in war; weapons which are highly ineffective. But Earth will not listen to our wisdom. They deny us time and time again with claims that we are trying to usurp their order and their governments. We can't help them prepare if they refuse to accept our guidance._

_We have tried to introduce the concept of the Light on Earth but it has been widely ignored. Earth has its own ideas about a higher power and feels threatened by our attempts to introduce what they have dubbed a new religion. It is one and the same, at the core we believe in the same thing. Earth cannot see this however. They are making themselves an easy target for the Darkness. Earth is ripe for it and will fall easily unless it learns to trust and accept the guidance of Skylands. We aren't trying to overthrow the rulers of Earth, merely prepare them for what looms on the horizon. The inevitable encroaching dominion of the Darkness._

_And so Skylands stands with a helping hand extended as Earth turns away feeling it knows better what its people need. Through the frustrations we continue to offer aid and send their missing back home. How long before Earth will accept our goodwill? How long before Earth allows our trapped people to return home? How long until Earth accepts the changes happening to it? How long until the stalemate ends?_

* * *

><p>Authors' notes:<p>

Seraph: This collab came about from another writing exercise my co-author (Shadowdawn199) and I were involved in. The idea was just too fun to leave as a one shot. So we put our heads together and came up with this. Keep in mind this is going to be AU to the extreme and while it's sitting at the T rating right now it will go up to a comfortable M eventually. We're going to run wild and push the limits with this. Be prepared for genderbending, deaths and all sorts of chaos. Hopefully you'll enjoy the fruits of our labor as much as we enjoyed fleshing it out and making it all fit together. The journey ahead will be dark and fraught with danger but it will have equal parts heart and soul as well. We're trying to push ourselves to creative limits and expand our horizons so please, leave us feedback!

Shadow: Welp, like my co-writer said we took an offshoot concept and ran with it, and this story is the twisted offspring. I've already had a blast working with Seraph, and the darkest stories our archive has to offer might be considered a little tame when we're through with this. Not only is there genderbending and deaths, but dalliances and pairings that were considered only as crack, not to mention some creative use of the AU setting for character backgrounds. Prepare to see the usual fan favorites suffer, while those of you who love lesser used Skylanders may see them flourish. Of course, these dark elements come from both of us (muahahaha), being a collab as it is, and our styles have meshed wonderfully. The only clue you'll have as to who is writing at any given time are certain words, as we decided not to edit the different ways we spell for a neat visual aid. So I'm writing colour and Seraph's writing color. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy, and tell us what you think.


	2. I

**I.**

Wynrock Pub was known for its wildly varying patrons. It was one of the few places a traveler would find themselves among trolls, ogres, gremlins, elves, gillmen, mabu, dragons and everything in between. It was a loud, busy hub of activity at all hours of the day and night as it never closed its doors due to a rotating staff. One might think the wide range of guests would make it a volatile cocktail but it was well policed by armed guards posted at the door and patrolling the multiple common rooms within. That wasn't to say it didn't have its problems but they were quelled easily and the perpetrators were evicted quickly to ensure the peace wasn't disrupted for long.

Against the wall in the entertaining room, an area set aside for bards, musicians and other performers, a lone blonde elf with fair skin sat looking over an aged and weather beaten map. She was a Guardian, a Portal Master aligned with the Light known for globetrotting and heroics alongside Skylanders throughout the floating isles of the world. She was dressed in leather and mail armor that was woven together as if it were a skirt. Under the leather was a rich purple fabric that sat low on her bust, it was off the shoulders but covered her arms down to the wrist where it flared from under supple natural leather bracers. She wore a leather guard around her neck that was open to show skin just above the purple armor liner. The chainmail covered her chest like a tank top that was belted just under the swell of her breasts. The mail went lower to cover her midsection before it was belted again and fanned out in a skirt that reached her knees. The mail was open on the right side to provide movement and jingled softly each time she moved. She wore dark leather breeches that were tucked into ashy black colored boots that came all the way up to her thighs. She was a magic user more than a melee fighter and the armor was enchanted to provide protection from magic as well as physical damage despite how ineffective it looked.  
>Behind the long golden hair that trailed down to the seat of her pants her back was bare and a tattoo of feathered wings in golden ink decorated the smooth skin displayed. It was no ordinary tattoo, the wings moved as if alive and the feathers shimmered with light that cast a soft glow on her back as well as objects close enough to be bathed in it. When she desired them the wings would take a material form and fan out behind her majestically as ethereal, glowing apparitions.<br>Wrapped around a delicate finger was a golden ring with two raised patterns; in the back there was a sunburst and it was overlaid with the symbol for Life. The sunburst marked the elf as an Archon, the highest classification of Guardian. The symbol for Life signified the neutral elemental alignment she had possessed since birth.

Next to the map on her right was a tankard of some dark beverage. On the other side of the map and to her left was another. She had company at the table but at the moment her companion was missing. Musicians played a calm and soothing melody on the stage in the room but the figure at the table with the map hardly heard them. A handful of stones were scattered about the map of the island she was focused on. Several white stones populated the borders and one black stone was off to the side. Partially hidden under the map was a sheaf of papers that she occasionally slid out to look at then compare with the map.  
>The elven woman crossed her legs, one narrow booted foot bounced slowly as she thought hard about the items she was studying. She tapped a point on the map, moved the black stone to it and made a small sound of approval before the window-less, fire lit room went dark. Something warm and furry was over her eyes, the crook of an elbow most likely. Rather than expressing fear the elf grunted and drummed well-kept nails on the map and table below. "I know it's you, Pop. We came in together."<br>"Just had to see if you were still awake," the male voice chuckled. "You were entranced with that thing."  
>The arm was moved and the elven woman's soft golden brown eyes followed the long eared, furry sky blue creature to the other side of the table. White teeth with sharpened canines flashed in a grin as the furry individual took a seat. He had roughly the same build as the elf but unlike her he lacked a defined nose and instead had a slight dome-like swell in the area. Large golden yellow eyes sat farther apart than the elf's but worked well with the broad space that represented his nose. Rabbit-like long ears graced the sides of his shaggy head and were very expressive when he wanted them to be; at the moment he had both straight up with their hoop piercings, ten per ear, jangling softly against one another.<p>

He was a gremlin like many others in the room but he was vastly different at the same time. At a foot taller and with solid blue fur devoid of the usual mask and underbelly tones every other gremlin possessed he didn't look like one at all. He had four clawed fingers, they had three without claws. His clawed feet also resembled hands while the shaggy fur on every other gremlin's foot hid their paws and gave the illusion of a straight leg without a foot. He had a wild mane of hair atop his head streaked with lighter blue that he brushed back with his hand. His shoulders were wide, not all was actual girth but long, fluffy fur. His forearms too were covered in longer fur than the rest of him and his calves shared the same poof. Hidden in the fur at his shoulders were the straps for a backpack, around his waist was a wide belt decorated with colorful potion bottles that sloshed as he moved. All he wore was a strange black wrap of cloth for modesty. It literally was wrapped around him and tied in a way that would let him loosen or tighten it easily.  
>The gremlin was a Skylander of the Magic Element. He served all Guardians but had bonded with the elf as her Familiar and would listen to her first and foremost. Their bond went deeper than that and often got questions of how she could put up with him from the other Skylanders and Guardians.<p>

"What did you get, Pop?" the woman asked as he set down a tray laden with food. "We just ate breakfast." She eyed the platter full of meats, cheeses and crackers then shook her head.  
>"Well Seraph, between my condition and you," he gave her a sly grin and wink at the last part, "I burn a lot of calories. Gotta eat to keep goin'!" he proclaimed with a sparkle in his golden eyes.<br>Seraph folded her hands on the table and raised a brow at him. "Your 'condition' just so happens to be the result of experiments you performed on yourself. I have no involvement in that."  
>"You were pretty involved last night. And this morning," the gremlin replied smugly. He barely managed to suppress a smirk by tossing a cube of cheese into his mouth. The elf gave him a flat look. Pop picked up another and offered it to Seraph. When she made not a move for it he shrugged and ate it himself.<p>

"You know what I meant." She sighed and smoothed the exasperation from her expression. "This is what I was afraid of," she changed the subject and tapped the map. "These coordinates," Seraph pointed to where she had set the black pebble as a place marker, "correspond with the data we have on a Portal Dead Zone." She motioned to the white stones that peppered the land's borders. "We cannot get in or out with portal magic. We'll have to travel the ol' fashioned way."  
>Pop grunted and stood up to shuffle around the table and sat next to the elf on the bench that was really only made for one. "Flynn's on a mission so we can't rely on him. And the area's considered no-man's land. It won't be easy, babe." As the gremlin spoke he snuggled right up against the elf's side. She cast him a glance but said nothing and let the smaller figure remain flush against her.<br>"Shadow has connections," Seraph replied. "That is why I asked her here to begin with. If she wishes to join us the more the merrier."  
>"Why not focus on taking down the Obelisks?" the gremlin asked innocently and pointed to the nearest white stone. Portal Dead Zones were formed by tall white spires made of negative portal energy. They devoured any magic remotely similar to that used to make a portal. Both sides, Light and Dark, could use them but those that served the Darkness were far fonder of them than those that served the Light.<br>"They are tricky," Seraph replied slowly. "We would need a larger team so we could split up. But a larger team also increases our chances of failing our primary objective."

"Catch twenty-two sorta thing, huh?" Pop struggled to reach across the table for his platter opposite the map and with a grunt did the next best thing. The gremlin suddenly swelled up, his shoulders widened as did his chest. His arms, torso and legs lengthened and bulked up with muscle. The sky blue of his fur deepened into a near indigo with a few lighter streaks present in his mane and on the backs of his fingers and toes. All of his teeth sharpened to match his pointed canines and the fur around his eyes turned almost magenta and sat there like a mask around eyes that went from red at the corners to orange then yellow around the pupils. Happily he snagged a piece of meat and popped it in his mouth. "I like working with Shadow, by the way. She's hilarious," he stated in a voice that had grown deeper with his transition. Too many experiments had left the alchemist with the ability to alter his size, he was limited to his current hulking form and the smaller one but each was very effective at whatever task he used them for.  
>The elf grunted as she was very nearly pushed off the bench by the gremlin that was now nearly two feet taller than her. "Move it back," she commanded as she rose to her feet. When the gremlin complied she sat squarely in his lap. "One of your bottles is diggin' into my hip," Seraph hissed as she reached behind her to shift the item on his belt.<br>"How do you know it's the bottle?" he whispered into her ear with a wide grin. A moment later and he yelped in surprise as a small burst of Light exploded and crackled in his face. Even though he had raised a hand to rub away the spots that floated in his vision he couldn't help but laugh. "Oh we're past the warnings already?"

"I love you," the elf smirked, "But some days you just push all the wrong buttons. How many potions have you drunk today?" She folded her arms up against her sides as he wrapped his around her and began to count on his fingers as he mumbled under his breath.  
>"Two," he said at long last. All of his fingers were up.<br>Seraph dead panned it again, "Really?" her tone was flat and spoke volumes of how much she doubted that. "You're gonna get another spell to the face if you don't control yourself."  
>"I'm surprised he doesn't get more than he already does," a female voice rich with the evidence of a smile said from behind the couple. "And Pop Fizz, what are you doing playing booster seat for Seraph? She's a big girl last I checked."<br>"Hi Shadow!" the gremlin said enthusiastically as he turned halfway around to wave at her goofily.  
>"Someone's got some explaining to do," the newly arrived ally said. "Nothing was ever said about a mission to Misty Vale. That's Raider territory. You're tangling with Dark Portal Masters?"<p>

A dusky black furred dragoness seated herself across from the gremlin and elf, perching on the opposite bench that was only meant for those with two legs, not four. Her head, crested with light grey feathers fanned out in a spiky mohawk like fashion, dipped to the pair in greeting. Short ears, that while similar to her gremlin companion's did not sit pricked up but lay flat, bobbed with the motion, as did her silver hoops. Two to each ear, with her right ear featuring a bigger hoop hung with a rounded amethyst pendant. Her belly fur brushed against the table and was a darker black, the same black of her webbed membrane wings, which were folded neatly against her sides, and were not only webbed like the traditional dragon's wing but sported feathers on both sides near where the wing claw normally sat. Her tail, tipped with thorny spikes, curled neatly around her paws. She wore a collar around her neck, gold with the edges banded in black, and featured on the front was a pearly white design in the shape of a skull, the symbol of the Undead element. On her forelegs were golden bracers pressed with the four diamonds Mark of the Undead, and her hind legs sported bracers that were similarly banded to her collar.

Shadow regarded the map laid out on the table, her kohl rimmed eyes studying the positions of the stones. Then her eyes flicked up to Seraph. Piercing ice blue shards, the only other clue besides her collar that she was of the Undead element, stared at Seraph. Her smile seemed to increase in size, and she tapped the map with a claw. "Seraph," she said finally, "where would you be without me? I doubt you could ever get into that Dead Zone otherwise…" she trailed off, not bothering to contain her smirk. She held up her claw. "But since I'm here, we'll breeze right in. Though I'd appreciate it if you told me why. Are we answering a distress call or something?"  
>Seraph wondered how it was that Shadow could always guess what it was she was needed for. "Of a sort, yes," she replied, "as a ship went down in that area and we've been asked to find it. The curious thing is that ship is unidentified, so it's suspected to be smugglers or those of that ilk," she frowned. "Of course, we're honour bound to help them." The elf didn't look too happy about this. Helping smugglers wasn't something she wanted to do, but leaving them to the mercy of the Raiders was even more abhorrent.<br>The dragoness nodded slowly, thinking. Pop Fizz, who had been quiet for a bit, perked up. He flexed his arm muscles, "We're playing hero, eh? Fun," the gremlin bared teeth in a wide grin.  
>Shadow chuckled. "Looks like it," she answered back, and the Skylander punched the air triumphantly.<p>

They flew from the inn at daybreak, collecting what gear they'd need, and decided not to charter a pilot to take them to Misty Vale. The dangers of the area were too high to risk the life of a civilian. Shadow flew Pop Fizz as Seraph could not carry the gremlin, and they arrived on Misty Vale's island before they spent the rest of the day trekking, as to avoid attention from Raiders that they might otherwise receive if they flew. While Misty Vale was a no man's land it was directly across from a Raider stronghold, and that meant their forces patrolled the area. The Chapter of Light on the neighboring island stayed away from Misty Vale as well, so that meant that the trio wouldn't be able to call any backup in. As twilight fell they stopped to set up camp, at which point Shadow had ducked off, saying that when she returned she would bring with her a way of getting closer into the Dead Zone and the ship's crash site.  
>Pop Fizz was cooking dinner on their camp fire when Shadow arrived back. When Pop Fizz saw exactly what she'd brought, he whistled for Seraph and stared, slack jawed, at Shadow. While it was common knowledge that Shadow was Baron Sharpfin's right hand dragoness, and she commanded just as much respect as he in some circles, it was one thing to know and another to see her laughing and joking with a following of some of the toughest looking pirates the gremlin had ever seen.<br>Seraph emerged from her tent to see Pop Fizz serving stew to those very pirates. She dipped her head politely to them, even though inwardly she gritted her teeth. Pirates were not the kind of people she liked to deal with. Preying on innocent ships and stealing their cargo was no good way to make a living. Shadow must have noticed her ire, because she came forward, trailing a chestnut flanked centaur who, from the look of the heavy ornaments braided into his mane, was the captain.  
>"Seraph, this is Takhil, and his crew, the Mist Wraiths. They prey on the Raiders around here, taking down their supply ships," Shadow introduced the centaur, confirming the elf's guess.<br>"Pleasure to meet you, my lady," the centaur extended a hand and Seraph shook it. Shadow shot her a look as they went to sit around the campfire, one Seraph took to mean that the information about who the Mist Wraiths preyed upon had been entirely for her benefit.

Once they'd all eaten, Seraph broached their mission. "Takhil, has Shadow told you why she brought you here?"  
>The centaur nodded. "The Baroness told me enough. The Raiders don't dare touch our ship, so we can take you easily into the Dead Zone. I warn you though; you'll probably not be the only ones to know about the crash. We saw it go down as well, but there were Raider scouts in the area and we don't engage Darkspawn on the ground."<br>"Shall we leave now, then? As the night approaches I'd rather be somewhere safer than this if I could be," Pop Fizz asked, scooping up the remnants of his stew with a piece of bread and tossing it in his mouth before the gremlin gestured around them. While they'd set up camp in a copse of trees most of Misty Vale was rolling plains inside a rock walled valley, with waterfalls pouring down from those walls. It was open and exposed enough to set anyone on guard.  
>A blue avian pirate laughed, shaking her quills in mirth, "Don'tcha want to stick around to see the famous mist roll in?" she replied.<br>"I like my fur nice and dry, thanks," Pop Fizz made a great show of shivering violently, shaking his head and making teeth chattering noises.

The pirates laughed deeply. Once they exhausted their lungs, Takhil gestured to two of his larger crew members. "Astrin and Ola can help you pack up and carry your camp. My ship is hidden in a cavern behind one of the waterfalls on the west side, so we'll bring it over here, if you like, since you folks are probably tired from trekking all the way out here," the centaur offered, rising from the seating position on his folded legs. Both Pop Fizz and Shadow looked to Seraph to decide.  
>"We'll accept your help. Thank you for doin' this," Seraph dipped her head in thanks, and rose to pack the camp up.<br>Mist curled and scattered in their wake as the ship flew, the silver rays of the rising moon lighting up the clinging clouds. However some were unable to enjoy the view; Shadow, Seraph, Takhil along with his deputy and navigator Repala, the laughing bird pirate who had asked Pop Fizz about the mist, sat together in the captain's chambers planning their next move. Seraph had brought out her map again, ringing the black pebble with the white ones, and Takhil had a small blue stone to represent the position of his ship, which at present was almost in the Dead Zone.  
>"Takhil, is it possible that we could land near the crash site? Is it safe enough?" Seraph queried.<br>The centaur frowned and looked at his deputy. Repala closed her golden eyes and thought for a moment, then opened them. "Aye, I reckon we could," the pirate answered, clicking her beak.  
>"Then that's what we'll do. It's a risk, but hopefully you'll just be in and out, yes?" Takhil looked to them for confirmation. Shadow nodded, and satisfied, Repala got up and left to steer the ship on its course, relieving the autopilot that had them going at the moment.<br>Seraph got up also. "I better go wake Pop Fizz. Shadow, we'll meet you out on deck in an hour or so, dependin' on how long it takes me to drag Pop out of his bed," the elf excused herself, leaving the room to continue down to the hold.  
>Takhil chuckled. Shadow tilted her head in question. "Baroness, you ever hear about how most Familiars and their Guardians end up in a relationship? I wonder how the lady will get hers out of bed," Takhil quirked a brow, and Shadow got it, laughing at the innuendo.<p>

Once the Archon and gremlin arrived topside the whole of the party all gathered on deck as they touched down, the last traces of mist being blown out in a large circle from the ship's engines. A soft moan and it settled, the deck only tilting slightly as the hull rolled. Repala flicked a switch, shutting off the purring engines, and waltzed over to Takhil. The centaur grinned, motioned to those of his crew who were staying behind as guards, and then stepped off the ship. "All ashore who's coming ashore!" he bellowed, leading the way off into the fog and twilight.  
>Pop Fizz pouted. "I wanted to say that," he sighed dejectedly, ears drooping down low. Seraph shook her head at his foolishness and stepped off after Takhil.<p>

They didn't have to walk for very long before they came to the crash site. "Light," Shadow breathed, staring at the ruined ship before them perfectly visible in the light of the full moon. The smugglers couldn't possibly have made it out alive. The hull was shredded, scraped across pebbles and boulders on the banks of a lake, and gaping holes had been blasted through the decks. The mast was snapped and lay splintered from the ship, and the sails were nothing but torn rags flapping in the breeze. Portholes were shattered and cargo spilled from the hold into the lake, barrels bobbing in the silver lit waves.  
>"This is a sorry state of affairs," Takhil looked sad, as the wreck had once been a fine ship, one that had been fast and nimble to avoid being detected.<br>"Indeed it is," a smooth male voice replied from behind them. They spun around, and there stood a squad of Raiders and Darksiders lit only by the moon.  
>"You looking for a fight?" Pop Fizz growled, suddenly in his larger, more imposing form. A Darksider hellhound growled, red coal eyes smouldering, muscles bulging under coarse, dirty fur and long rat-like tail whipping. The lead Raider, a soft skinned human, smiled and patted the hellhound's head.<br>"Yes, in fact, I am. Shela, get them," he commanded, and the battle began as the hound lunged forwards, fire billowing from snarling jaws.

A potion exploded on the ground, spattering acid in all directions, and the hound reeled back. Light erupted from Seraph's palms, and the grass began to twine around enemy legs, ensnaring those who didn't move quickly enough. Takhil pulled a dagger from his belt, stabbing a Darkspawn who leapt onto his blade before rearing up to kick another. Shadow lunged and pounced on an unfortunate Raider, tearing into her with claws wreathed in her black namesake. A block of earth erupted from the ground, catching a Darksider on the chin, and suddenly there stood a bull headed golem back to back with a green boomerang wielding dinosaur.  
>"Seraph, can we play too?" the golem rumbled, and the elf cracked a smile at the newly arrived Guardian and Skylander.<br>"If you want to, Breaker," she shot back, unfurling a packet in her hand and scattering pollen that paralysed any region of the body it hit. Breaker smiled and smashed the steel lumps that served him as hands into the chest of the snapping hound, who retaliated by spitting fire into his face. He roared, and Dino-Rang, for that was who the Skylander was, whirled around and threw a boomerang at the hound.

"Fancy meetin' the lot of ya here!" Dino-Rang bellowed as the first of his boomerangs hit the hound in the side of the head. He wound up and sent the other after it before the hound could recover. Dino-Rang's pointed teeth poked out from under the snarl he wore as he summoned his enchanted weapons back to his hands. "Thought we might've crashed tha wrong party!"  
>"The ship is closssest to usss," a muddy green snake hissed as he threw himself at Dino-Rang and wrapped his arms around the dinosaur's thick neck. "We claim the spoilsss!"<br>"Mate, not even Rattle Shake hisses and lisps like ya," the burly green Skylander muttered. The snake pulled back in an attempt to bite and Dino-Rang knocked his head back quickly to smash his would-be attacker in the face. The snake groaned and slipped from the Skylander's shoulders to land in a heap in the rock strewn grass. Dino-Rang clocked him upside the head with his boomerang and turned to throw the second out to help Pop Fizz avoid an ambush.

"You're a terrible dance partner," the gremlin sneered as he throttled the Raider that threw spell after spell at him and lit up the area with harsh multi hues of light. The gillman's already bulbous eyes looked ready to pop out and roll down his cheeks when the hulking monster clamped a massive clawed hand around his neck and lifted him two feet off the ground easily. Pop halfway glanced behind him when the saber cat Dino-Rang had been aiming for brushed his calf on his way to the dirt. The gremlin stepped back with one foot and pressed down hard on the saber cat, a weak groan barely reached his ears over the chaos of battle.  
>The struggling gillman Raider tried to summon in Darkness to help him. Whereas a Guardian would glow softly when they summoned Light a Raider would seem to darken the area around them. In the night the Raider almost appeared to vanish in a deep shadow. "We are stronger," the gillman gasped.<br>Pop Fizz's eyes widened and he did the first thing he thought of. He leaned back and threw the Raider like a stone into the hellhound that was trying to separate Shadow from a wounded Takhil.

The collision gave Shadow all the opportunity she needed. She darted in like an arrow and sank her teeth into the hound's left hamstring before she jerked her head back to tear the molten and flesh hide that covered the hound.  
>The Darksider howled in pain and leaned to the right to take pressure off the wounded leg. "Filthy lizard!" the canine snarled at Shadow.<br>The dragon spat out the foul tasting chunk she had taken from her opponent. "Stupid mutt," she retorted as she lowered the crown of feathers on her head and surged forward to head butt the other quadruped.  
>The hellhound trampled the gillman Raider in an effort to avoid Shadow.<br>"You idiot dog!" the Dark Portal Master roared. He tried to work an arm free to unleash a jet of water but only managed to shower the stream straight up harmlessly.  
>Shadow tried to use her wings to protect herself from the water that rained down. It wouldn't harm her but fur heavy with moisture would slow her and weigh her down. She didn't see the large dark blue ball of fur and glowing potions that bowled the gillman over and left him flat in the dirt. Shadow did hear the pitiful whine and snap that came when the gremlin slammed into the hellhound however.<p>

Pop Fizz stood up slowly and refused to look at the hellhound he had just snapped the neck of. He heard the human Raider roar in pain and defiance from where he was stuck with Seraph. Pop understood the situation; the hellhound was a Thrall and was to the Raider as he himself was to Seraph. "How bad is it?" the gremlin instead looked to Takhil.  
>The centaur grimaced and tucked his right arm closer to his chest. He was still put off by Pop Fizz's suddenly beastial appearance but knew the Skylander had his best interest in mind. "I think I can walk it off," the pirate captain said sarcastically. Blood ran from two jagged peaks of ivory near the elbow joint. Both bones in his lower arm had been snapped and a large section of flesh hung limp from his flank. His tail was gone, not even the short length of bone remained. Like Shadow had done to the hellhound Takhil had been hamstrung. His right rear leg was useless and stretched out awkwardly in the seated position he had been forced into. Light splashed the centaur and he looked past the gremlin that knelt next to him in time to see Shadow's jaws close and the bolts of pale blue and purple magic stop at the same time.<br>"Patch him up, gremlin," the dusky dragon said as she turned away from the heap of gillman that stared after her with lifeless eyes. "There's plenty more where they came from." Shadow worked to keep trailing opponents from harassing Takhil or Pop as the gremlin worked.  
>"Dammit, Shadow. I'm an alchemist not a doctor," Pop Fizz growled. He took the bloodied and broken centaur arm in his oversized hands and looked at it carefully.<br>Takhil tried to sit up taller and flinched. "You've got the muscle, use it and set the bone. You can craft healing draughts, right? That'll have to do."

As much as he thought he was ready for it Takhil still cried out in a voice that raised several octaves when the gremlin forced his bones back into place. He had pawed at the air and forced the gremlin to tug tightly on him to keep him still.  
>"How do I know if they set right?" Pop Fizz took the empty potion bottles and merely slammed them into the ground. They broke and seemed to melt away like butter on fresh baked bed. Pop Fizz only used special potion bottles to hold his concoctions.<br>"You don't," Takhil replied hoarsely through grit teeth. He looked at the glowing potions on the gremlin's belt that cast him in multiple colors of light, "Any of them liquor?"  
>With a glance around him that looked guilty Pop Fizz reached into his pack and pulled out a dark bottle of caramel colored liquid. "It's Seraph's I swear," he defended himself. Shadow simply rolled her eyes as she sank into her shadow and ran circles around the three opponents she faced.<br>The centaur grunted and popped the cork on it before he tilted it back and drank deeply. Streams of liquid trickled out the corners of his mouth and he coughed as he pulled the bottle back. "Then she has good tastes. Never thought to put cinnamon in whiskey."  
>"Heal him!" Shadow roared before she ran out to engage another group of Darksiders and Raiders. "Better make it quick, I think they've called for reinforcements!"<br>The steady thump of heavy feet brought Breaker up to Shadow's side. "Miss Shadow," the bull headed golem nodded. Breaker knew of her and had seen her but hadn't actually spoken to her until that moment.  
>"Mean punch you got there," she praised him and slowed to stay at pace with him. Shadow knew it was better to have someone to watch her back than go it alone particularly if the Darkness was afoot.<br>Breaker chuckled, "I do what I can."

Repala hadn't moved far from where she stood when the ambush came. The avian pirate was crumpled in the dirt and protected by a thick tangle of brambles and thorns. She had no way of knowing it was Seraph's doing and might panic when she awoke. For the moment she seemed to slumber in the middle of the battle with the steady rise and fall of her chest to indicate the electrical shock she had taken hadn't ended her life. She was safe for the time being and let the Archon focus on those that harried her instead.  
>The sudden appearance of a boomerang before her eyes made Seraph jerk away from the human Raider she had kept busy. "Dino!" she scolded the Skylander.<br>"Oi! I didn't hit ya, did I?" he retorted from somewhere behind her and to the left.  
>The Archon was distracted though and a moment later her arms were pinned at her sides when the Raider grabbed her. "You really think you stand a chance? Seven to our whole stronghold?" he squeezed the elf hard and tried to wrest her back a few steps.<br>"Sounds fair to me." The comment wasn't Seraph's usual fare but she had to distract the Raider as the vines she summoned crept up behind him. "Or maybe one sided. You wanna bring more friends to even it a bit?"  
>"Cocky bitch," the Raider seethed. He sent strong waves of electricity coursing through Seraph and smirked when the elf went limp for a second. At last the Raider caught sight of Seraph's sigil ring. "Oh and an Archon to boot. Victory is looking even sweeter." A sharp pain bloomed in the back of the Raider's head and another followed in the back of the knee and nearly brought him down.<p>

Seraph had pushed her luck but Dino-Rang was there to look after her and she was eternally grateful for it. The Raider held her tighter and Seraph summoned her wings quickly to catch him off guard. Light exploded and splashed the ground with gold as Seraph's ethereal wings took shape. The Dark Portal Master stumbled back as the feathered appendages forced his arms out wide and she pushed on him at the same time her vines snagged him and pulled him into a tight, vice-like embrace.  
>"Too afraid to face me directly?" the Raider spat. Seraph's vines turned him upside down and hardened into bark tough enough to make anyone that wanted to get him out work hard. As a last resort he summoned in Darkness and tried to flood the area. It would be drawn to the signatures of the two Guardians and would swarm in all of its own accord to try and oppress them if allowed.<br>Dino-Rang had moved up next to the Guardian by then and quirked a brow when he noticed how it seemed the light of the moon was darkening next to the inverted Raider. "Nice try, mate. But not today!" He hit the Dark Portal Master square in the head with a heavy hand and equally hard boomerang. The human went limp as his eyes rolled back into his head and he stopped struggling.

The Darkness didn't dissipate with the Raider's loss of consciousness. It continued to seep in not like mist or shadows but something far more solid and malevolent.  
>"Seraph," Dino-Rang warned the Archon.<br>"I see it," the elf scowled. "Enough of them banded together to summon it. Where's Breaker?"  
>The green scaled and red spine lined saurian turned his square head from side to side on a thick, muscular neck as he searched for the other Guardian and fellow Earth Element. "With Shadow bringin' down an Arkeyan construct. Damn thing looks cobbled tagetha from scrap." The Skylander was surprised when Seraph grabbed him by the wrist and marched off towards the dragon and golem.<br>"Does anyone know you are out this way?" Seraph questioned as she more or less dragged Dino along with her.  
>"Er, uh. No. Breaker an' I were just in the area and saw the ship go down." The saurian was only partially paying attention to Seraph. Whenever he saw a chance he threw a boomerang out to foul up an enemy in one way or another. A few stone fist traps were strategically set to pin down enemies as well.<br>The Guardian sighed as she sent a pulse of Light out to push the Darkness away from them. "Then word I left of answerin' the distress call is all the notice we have for others to find us. Pray, Dino-Rang. Pray we didn't just step in it big time."  
>The dinosaur looked down at his feet and the blackness that made them vanish when he set foot into a lower depression. "We stepped in it, alright," he muttered. "Best not forget your avian friend in the brambles. Sheila's gonna be a might bit surprised when she wakes."<p>

The wind was knocked from Shadow's lungs when she took a fierce kick to the gut from the Arkeyan monstrosity before her. As a being of the Undead element she didn't need to breathe but it had stopped her from calling out to Pop Fizz to quit messing around. Shadow pulled herself up to her feet slowly and kept an eye on Breaker, the minotaur golem had taken the Arkeyan by the larger of its two legs and was forcing it to hop around as he tugged and pulled on it. "Pop!" Shadow finally croaked, "We could use a flask of acid over here!"  
>"Give me a minute!" the gremlin shrieked. He had administered several potions to Takhil and the centaur was finally up and combat ready again but they had been swarmed by Darkspawn, simple minded forces of the Darkness that were so heavy with the corruption it could end the host's life before the Skylanders and allies could defeat them.<br>This wasn't a bad thing if the enemy's ranks could be thinned by themselves but then again it meant the sentient Heart of Darkness had a better chance of making an appearance. From the looks of it however that was more of a promise than possibility.  
>Pop flexed his claws, the sharpened tips and fur up to his elbows stained with dark liquid. In melee he was brutal and efficient; a terrible force when backed into a corner. "You ever been Swallowed before?" Pop Fizz asked the centaur. The fur on his back had bristled and nearly obscured the potions pack he wore. The gremlin was enraged but also anxious over what he knew was coming.<br>Takhil shifted his dagger from his right hand to his left so he could slash at one opponent the same time he reared up to kick another. The term 'Swallowed' was new to him but he got the gist when he considered the blackness that had nearly obscured the ground and only seemed to be rising. "Honestly, no. We run from it. No one wants to tangle with this."  
>"Stay with a Guardian at all times," Pop replied in a low growl before he lunged at a limping, corrupted mabu and dropped him easily. "The Light is the only weapon that will matter in a few moments." Rapidly the gremlin dispensed potion flask after potion flask in a flurry of movement that seemed impossibly quick and agile. Cries of pain, despair and fury rose up from the throng that had nearly cut him and Takhil off from everyone else. "Run, centaur! Run to the Guardians!"<p>

Takhil took him literally. Muscles rippled under chestnut fur and the ornaments in his long, dark mane of hair bounced erratically against the short, velvet fur that covered his elven-esque torso. His tail was gone, the scars that covered his flank only hinted at where it had been. Takhil was eternally grateful for the gremlin's efforts even if the arm that had been broken wasn't set properly before it had healed. Takhil was alive, that counted for something considering his healing had been done ala field medic style.  
>Hooves kicked up clods of dirt and dried grass as the viscous matter that made up the creeping Darkness didn't seem the least bit affected by Takhil's passing. The centaur's hooves thundered in between the heavy tromps of the Arkeyan construct Breaker and Shadow had their hands full with. Takhil tightened his grip on his dagger, it was a toothpick by comparison but it was all he had. They had to thin the ranks of enemies before the Darkness had covered them or risk facing opponents strengthened by it.<p>

By sending Takhil away Pop Fizz had left himself without an ally. The gremlin snarled at the wounded mass around him. The Darkness had reached mid-thigh on him by that point and he stood taller than everyone besides Takhil or Shadow at the moment. He backpedaled a few times and fished out a potion from his bag at the same time. "Well, worth a shot," he muttered before he took a glowing pale yellow one off his belt. He held both bottles by the neck in one hand and slammed them onto the ground at his feet.  
>After a bright flash of light a pale green mist billowed out from the impact sight and Pop Fizz danced out of the way quickly. He knocked a few Darkspawn back towards the mist before he broke into a run in the same direction Takhil had gone. His jangling earrings and fur glinted in the moonlight as he ran; the wet blood on his coat slicked it down and made it seem less voluminous.<p>

One by one the Darkspawn crumbled to the ground, their features obscured and half-hidden by the rising Darkness. The potion had paralyzed them, the strength was untested and Pop Fizz had no idea how long it would last or even the extent of the paralysis. There was always the possibility he might have just stopped hearts from beating or lungs from breathing. When it came to matters of Light versus Dark the outcomes were often quite final, it didn't mean Pop felt any better about what he had to do to protect Skylands.

"Shadow!" Seraph yelled to the dragon after she sent Dino-Rang to join Breaker. "Come with me!" the wings she had never retracted beat the air furiously as she took to the skies and cast a wide halo of light under her. Shadow was a heartbeat behind her and flew in as close to the elf as she could manage without their wings fouling the other up.  
>"Where's Repala?" the dusky dragon asked first thing.<br>"Safe for the moment under brambles and thorns. But once the Darkness has gripped the area tightly enough her haven may become her prison."  
>The dragon grimaced. "Your plan?" She angled to the right as Seraph swept around in front of the cobbled Arkeyan. Shadow was finally able to see the robot in full for the first time and she realized how shoddy it was. The limbs were made up of chest plates of smaller robots and she swore the scale-like plating on the bipedal machine's torso was in fact parts of ship hulls and even shields from various behemoth sized Arkeyans. The colors looked like an explosion of paint buckets with everything from rusty oranges to deep blues, splashes of gold and lines of silver mixed with the occasional naked steel and chrome.<br>"Ruin the circuits. Gunk up the gears. Bring it down or at least cripple it. We can't have it buggin' us when things get weird."  
>Being in mid-flight as she was helped to cover Shadow's shudder. She hated it when things got weird; the Darkness always messed with her senses. "You need a hole, right?"<br>"Bingo," the elf nodded and swooped down to avoid a swipe from the Arkeyan. "Keep it occupied!" she roared down to the group on the ground. Her heart was hammering in her chest; the Darkness was nearly up to Dino-Rang's chest and seemingly climbing faster. If she got stuck outside of the bubble it was forming she wouldn't be able to aid those trapped in it. Likewise those trapped in it wouldn't be able to get out; not until they found whatever the Darkness had used as an anchor and destroyed it.

"Where do you need me?" Takhil pranced nervously as he finally reached Breaker and Dino-Rang. Light flickered and raced over him, his allies and the Arkeyan alike as Seraph's glowing form darted about in the air above their heads.  
>"If you can ruin the gears in an ankle that would help us tremendously," Breaker grunted. He held both of his bulbous, blunt hands over his head and slammed them down into the ground to create a shockwave. The Arkeyan braced for it and the rough armor on the joints moved to expose the vital parts needed for movement. "We get that armor off and that's your target," Breaker informed the centaur.<br>Takhil narrowed deep brown eyes, "Right," he growled through a curled lip. He couldn't stop from focusing on the rising Darkness and the prickling feeling it left in his legs. He could almost imagine the horrors contained within circling his feet and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. He envied the way the Skylander and Guardian seemed to work as if they were of one mind. Takhil was most likely looking at another bonded pair and for perhaps the first time in his life he envied something. If he had that sort of connection with his crew they would be the stuff of legends.

"What's the rush, hairball?"  
>Pop Fizz hadn't seen it coming. He yelled in surprise and rage as he was pressed down hard into the dirt. The Darkness had engulfed him completely and fear pricked at his senses like a whisper of doubt. He had been so close; he could hear the thumps of Dino-Rang's, Breaker and Takhil's feet in the dirt over the Arkeyan construct's. He had nearly reached his allies. But now he was cut off from them; the bubble of Darkness was over his head and would act as a low ceiling if he tried to stand. He couldn't see his allies even though he was so near them. The soft glow of his potion bottles should have revealed their legs but nothing was where he had last seen them. Pop Fizz wouldn't see them until they had been completely Swallowed and maybe not even then if the Darkness separated them.<br>"Your Guardian will mourn your passing," the voice promised again.  
>It was a force of magic that held the gremlin down. It pressed on him like a boulder and threatened to crush the life out of him when it made breathing hard. The monstrous gremlin grit his teeth and ever so slowly managed to work his arms under him to push up. "Maybe one day," he wheezed. His muscles trembled as did his long ears and the hoops that lined them clinked softly together. The air felt thick and took more effort to breathe suddenly. "But not today." A deep rumbling growl issued from the back of his throat as Pop forced himself to stand. The weight pressing down on him wouldn't allow him to stand up straight but the half crouch he was in made him look ready to lunge with the bulge of muscle clearly visible under the shorter fur on his upper arms and thighs. The glow that came from his belt cast only a small amount of light on his face and when combined with the deep shadows he looked positively terrifying when his lips curled back into a snarl.<p>

A drow witch tossed her head back and her nostrils flared in annoyance. "Simple-minded fool! You can barely move, what do you think you are going to be able to to?"  
>A half sort of smirk played at the corners of the gremlin's lips. He took a potion from his belt rather than bag and drank it as if he were dying of thirst. The witch's spell was nullified instantly and with no room over his head to straighten up Pop Fizz did the next best thing. He dropped down to all fours and charged the witch like an animal complete with snarls and roars.<br>"Fool!" she shrieked and threw another spell at the gremlin. He leaned to the side to avoid it and came at her full tilt. The witch sent spell after spell at the gremlin; he took a few head on and only hissed in irritation but never slowed. "No!" the witch screamed shrilly when the beast knocked her over and took her by the neck to smash her head into the dirt several times. Pop's lips never relaxed from the snarl as he pulled away from the witch and turned back to join his friends. He could still feel Seraph and she guided him back to the others. With luck she could hold him in place and when she too was Swallowed he would have her back. If not then the gremlin prayed he at least found one of the others.

"Got it!" Shadow yelled triumphantly. It had been a terrible risk for her to perch on the Arkeyan's back but it paid off when she had managed to pry a large section of metal plating off. The dragon unhooked her claws from the multiple crags on the patch-work mechanical golem and spun down towards the rising Darkness before she spread her wings at the last moment and ascended once more to keep an eye on Seraph.  
>The glowing Archon spun into a dive herself and swung past the open hull of the Arkeyan to survey the exposed internal workings. She found a gear and focused on summoning a vine from nothing to foul it up. If she could cause the Arkeyan's insides to grind to a halt then the goliath could be rendered scrap.<p>

"Girl's on tha ball!" Dino-Rang laughed when he saw the first sprout of a vine way down at the knee joint of the Arkeyan. "Mates! Back it up a bit, give tha girl some room ta work! Keep armor britches busy though!" The saurian aimed carefully and threw a boomerang up high above his head to ping off the Arkeyan's chest. The robot's head made a horrible grinding noise as it looked down on the much smaller beings of flesh.  
>Breaker snorted and tossed his horned head; they were making headway but was it enough? Another foot and a half of rising would be all it took for the Darkness to completely eclipse them. It was gaining momentum most likely from the Raiders that had for the moment all but vanished. "Cowards," the golem told himself bitterly. He felt the enemy relied too heavily on cheap tricks to try and defeat the Warriors of Light. He drew back his right arm before it surged forward in time with the left foot of the Arkeyan that came down beside him. Stone rang on metal before it squealed and popped from the force of the blow. Breaker cursed his lack of fingers because he could have easily torn the plating off it if he could only grip the sides of the hole he had just punched in it.<br>"Oh it," Dino-Rang said suddenly.  
>Breaker thanked their bond. When thoughts were strong enough they could share them and it increased the reaction rates exponentially. "Watch yourself, pirate!" the golem yelled at Takhil. He really needed to get the centaur's name so he didn't sound so rude when he addressed him.<p>

Below her Shadow watched the group slowly remove metal plating around the Arkeyan's left ankle before the foot jammed up and the goliath nearly lost balance. "Where's Pop Fizz?" she yelled to Seraph when she realized her friend's companion was missing.  
>"Swallowed," Seraph replied with a grimace. She tapped her heart and Shadow understood that the elf had her attention divided between the gremlin and Arkeyan.<br>The dragon narrowed her eyes and her lip curled up into a snarl. She turned suddenly and looked as if she were fleeing. She made a wide arc and as she did so wreathed herself in shadows, her favorite attack and ironically something that had come after she had been named, and increased her size tenfold with the dusky shroud. It was nothing like the Darkness and anyone that could see them side by side would understand that.  
>Looking like a great and ancient dragon of smoke Shadow picked up speed and rammed the Arkeyan square in the chest. With the damaged ankle she toppled it easily. Metal popped and twisted as Seraph's vines swelled to enormous girths and rent the machinery inside the metal casing. Gears ground against each other before they halted altogether. The Arkeyan wasn't destroyed but it wasn't going to be moving without repairs. They had accomplished their goal none too soon. "Seraph!" Shadow screamed wide-eyed; their allies were nearly gone with Darkness up to the neck. Dino-Rang had even lifted his arms over his head to at least prolong his disappearance. Shadow folded her wings and dropped into a mad dive. She couldn't leave Takhil by himself. She was fond of the pirate and as many times as he'd been there for her she couldn't let him down now.<p>

Seraph beat her wings as she righted herself in the air and faced the brambles that hid the avian pirate. Both hands came up over her head and formed an orb of Light the size of a beach ball before she threw it hard at the brambles. It sank halfway in, the best Seraph could manage but it would shield Repala nonetheless. The elf rolled over and slipped into an easy dive herself. She angled slightly away from the main group and encased all of herself in Light as she raced towards the ground.

Pop turned just in time to open his arms and catch the winged figure as she slowed her descent when she reached the crest of the Darkness. The gremlin couldn't see her before she entered the Shroud in full but he could _feel_ her approach. Despite the fact she had tried to slow down Seraph hit Pop Fizz with enough force to knock him over and make him slide backwards. Bottles on his belt clanked and clattered as did those in his potion pack. Sheer luck prevented anything from shattering in the chaos of the Archon's near crash landing. When he and Seraph finally stopped moving Pop saw Breaker now wreathed in Light standing with Dino-Rang, Takhil and Shadow looking down on him in surprise. The Darkness had Swallowed them all. A halo of Light wreathed the group in relative safety so long as the Guardians produced their golden glow. It looked like a dark night around them but they all knew better.

"Little late, don't cha think?" the gremlin grinned up at his allies. He had more to say but was silenced by a fierce kiss from Seraph.  
>"My lady!" Takhil gasped in surprise, "Now is hardly the time!"<br>Shadow smirked; she had just seen Breaker give an orb of Light to Dino-Rang that the Skylander popped into his mouth like candy. Even past Seraph's glow she could see the elf was doing the same for Pop Fizz albeit with a more theatrical and intimate presentation. "No Takhil now is the only time for it. You'll understand in a minute."  
>The centaur looked from the elf and gremlin back to Shadow. He couldn't even begin to fathom <em>why<em> such a display was needed. "Please tell me that," he pointed to the pair as Seraph finally released Pop Fizz, "isn't akin to a sailor parting with his lover before a long journey." He got amused looks from nearly everyone in return.

"Take this," Breaker offered the centaur a small orb of Light.  
>Baffled Takhil took it and watched it roll between the palms of his hands. "What do I do with it?"<br>"Eat it, duh," Shadow teased. By then both elf and gremlin were on their feet and Seraph held an open palm out for Shadow with an exact copy of the orb Takhil had cupped gently. Shadow demonstrated for the pirate by gracefully curving her neck and expertly plucking the orb from Seraph's palm. She rolled her lips back to show the centaur the orb in her teeth before she tilted her head up, let the Light slide into her mouth and swallowed. "Think of it as a warding spell. You'll be safer for consuming it."  
>"It keeps hope alive," Pop nodded along. "You'll surely fall without it." He flashed Takhil a wide grin when he saw the realization dawn on the centaur's face about what had actually happened between him and the Guardian. "She only does that for me, Pirate sir. Call it our good luck ritual," he winked.<br>Slowly the centaur moved the orb to his mouth and swallowed it. It had looked a little too large to go down easily but Takhil had never even felt it aside from the sensation of safety and calmness that seemed to seep into his bones.

Breaker sighed and rubbed a stony forearm over his forehead. He turned in a slow full circle and saw nothing but blackness around them. There was no wreckage, no downed Arkeyan monstrosity. It was an empty void of nothing no matter where he looked. "I guess we can't investigate the wreckage until we clear this mess up. Brace yourselves, folks. We're going to turn off the glows and let the Darkness roll in completely."  
>"Why?" Takhil demanded with a stomp. "Burn it away. Banish it!" He pranced about nervously and his eyes darted around, it was a bad sign for how he would hold up during the coming trials. If he was already fighting the calming effects of the Light he might render its aid void.<br>"It don't work that way, mate," Dino-Rang shook his head. He tightened his grip on the boomerangs he was known for. "If they glow the focal point, or Anchor, neva shows itself. It the Anchor neva shows we can't defeat it and clear the Darkness. That's why we had to pop a Light pill. For protection."  
>"We still use flares and pulses from time to time," Seraph tried to soothe the centaur's nerves. "But we have to face it and beat it or we're stuck here. And the faster we defeat it the better. The Darkness will try to mislead you. Trust no one that is not already right here with us," she motioned around the group.<br>"Repala?" Takhil licked his lips and looked towards the glowing mass he knew protected her. That was the only feature in the otherwise black nothing around them.

Shadow sighed softly and walked up to the centaur before she reared up and braced her paws on the shoulders of his upper torso. "You have to make a decision, Takhil. She is safe where she is. For now. To remove her means we have to lash her to either your back or mine until she awakens. And there's no for sure promise that she won't wake up corrupted. If she can't fight the Darkness it could take her easily."  
>"But if we leave her there the same could happen if my Light should fail," Seraph spoke slowly. The news wasn't good for either path but she had to inform Takhil of the dangers for both options. "Whoever is tasked with carryin' her won't be able to defend themselves."<p>

The centaur closed his eyes and rested his hands on the paws the dragon had on his shoulders. "I think," he said softly. "I think she is safest where she is. What else can you do for her, Lady Archon?" he addressed Seraph with the most formal title she possessed.  
>"Breaker," she turned and spoke to the other Guardian, "Set your own orb of Light as backup."<br>The minotaur nodded and and held up one rounded stump of a hand as Light small as a pin-prick slowly gained intensity and grew to match the size of Seraph's. He didn't throw it but rather dropped his arm and the orb drifted towards the brambles before it sank partially in and further made the area look like a beacon. "Now both of us have set a shield over her. The rest is up to her should she awaken. She can always decide to leave the safety of her little nook."  
>Takhil's hands trembled slightly over Shadow's paws. Reluctantly the dragon pulled them back and settled on the ground on all fours again. "Do it. Let's get this over. Snuff the Light." the centaur's voice quivered. He was very unsure about what he had just requested but he had to trust the Guardians. How he missed his ship, crew and the open skies where things were much more predictable or at least familiar.<br>"Stay close to us," Seraph whispered. She took Pop Fizz by the hand and squeezed it quickly as she let her glow fade and retracted her wings. Breaker did the same and the blackness wrapped them up like a shroud. Nothing could be seen until it had set up the location for them how it wanted.

At last something akin to very dim light allowed the party to see one another and make out vague shapes further away from them. Repala and her brambles were gone as were the orbs of Light.  
>"By the Light," Takhil gasped as his eyes adjusted to the dim visibility.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Note from Seraph:<strong> In case you haven't already figured it out not only is this going to be AU but we're going to slightly alter how some of the Skylanders look. Take Pop Fizz for example or gremlins in general. Rather than squat little balls of fur we've envisioned them built more like dwarves, still short and stocky but with defined necks, torsos and so on. Our dragons too aren't the cutesy little ones from the games. Spyro and the rest of them stand about as tall as a horse while older ones are much larger with age.


	3. II

**II.**

The water near where the Skylanders had fought was gone. The crashed ship and fallen Arkeyan had vanished as well and the ground was no longer dirt and dried grass. Instead the group stood in what looked like a desiccated forest littered with broken twigs and thorns in place of underbrush. Twisted, spike-riddled trees leaned at strange angles; what limbs they possessed were gnarled and seemed to fold back in on themselves as if something had prevented them from stretching out as they grew. The ground was cracked from drought and holes large enough to catch a foot in peppered the ground while others were hidden under the debris.  
>In the distance the trees became more and more numerous until they formed a tangled wall akin to the brambles Seraph had used to protect Repala. While no one else in the group was aligned with Life as she was they could feel the overwhelming sense of wrongness that the trees seemed to secrete.<p>

"Is this normal?" Takhil murmured as if afraid his voice were too loud in the dead air. He stepped carefully in the broken twigs and thorns under his feet. They snapped and crackled as well as scraped his hooves and the softer part of his foot.  
>"Yep," Pop Fizz nodded. He let Seraph's hand go and pointed in the direction the trees began to thin. "It wants us to go that way. So we go thataway." The gremlin looked like he was walking on glass when he picked each foot up high and carefully set it down.<br>Takhil stood straight as the others began to walk with only Breaker failing to use any care since his naturally armored hooves were so tough. "You're letting it _lead_ you?" the pirate balked. The centaur's fear seemed to have melted away and was replaced by indignation. He scuffed a hoof through the debris and snorted as he folded his arms over his chest. "We can cut through the brambles, right? If it's blocking the way that's probably where we should be going."  
>Seraph had stopped to stand near Takhil but Dino-Rang was the one to address him. "Look, I know it looks like a stupid move but ya gotta undastand; this <em>thing<em> around us? It's alive. It's thinkin' and like it or not we're playin' a game with it. Right now there's only one way ta go. Believe me, when the Darkness gives ya as blunt a clue on where ta walk as this ya follow it. Goin' towards the dead end will lead t'a trap. If ya fall for it that's it; the Darkness owns ya."  
>"Trust the Guardians and Skylanders, Takhil," Shadow soothed her friend. She herself wasn't a Portal Master or Skylander but she had worked with them enough to learn they were her best bet to get through the trials ahead. "They're here to get you out of this but you have to trust them." She grimaced when she took a thorn to the foot. The dragon plucked it easily with her teeth and scowled at the littered ground as if she could scare it into being more tidy. She ruffled her wings in agitation before the dark dragon resumed walking.<p>

Takhil finally trudged off after the others and took just as many thorns to the foot as everyone else. It made their pace slow when someone would grumble and pause to dig a sharp spine out. The centaur kept his eyes forward but out of the corner of his eyes something appeared to shift. He swore that behind him the trees were multiplying and pushing in closer on them. Takhil pushed it off as his imagination; the others were veterans to Shrouds and they hadn't raised any sort of alarm. "This isn't so bad," he murmured softly. "A little boring actually."  
>"Look behind you," Pop Fizz commanded. His ears twitched as if annoyed.<br>The gremlin hadn't even glanced back himself so Takhil didn't understand why he would request such a thing. When Takhil looked he nearly turned back around and bolted. A cliff he didn't remember stood behind them and the twisted trees were backed up against it. No, the trees were _moving_. They slid and left torn earth wet with what could only be called blood in their wake as the cliff too rolled forward and forced them along. There was not a sound despite the massive scale of the movement. Takhil got it then; they were fighting the Darkness but until it gave them something more tangible to work with they had to let it herd them. The pirate captain shuddered. That was how the Darkness worked. It wasn't exactly something he could reason out but it could wear on his nerves all the same. "Can we move faster?" he requested. Takhil saw the thorns he would take to the foot as a small price to pay in order to avoid the moving cliff.

A crunch from the head of the line startled Takhil and he spun quickly as he drew his dagger. "What the devil are you _doing_?" he demanded of Pop Fizz.  
>The blue Skylander had reverted to his smaller size and had his hand buried in a bag of snacks. He chewed noisily on the handful that had just gone into his mouth. "Uh, eatin'?" the gremlin said slowly and rattled the bag. He stuffed another handful into his mouth with the twisted forest as a backdrop. He danced around as he walked, trying to juggle eating and removing thorns from his feet at the same time.<br>"It's a quirk," Seraph explained. She drew the gremlin up next to her and he beamed back at Takhil. "His second form causes his metabolism to go into overdrive. He eats a lot. A whole lot. Otherwise he gets cranky and believe me; a cranky alchemist is a dangerous alchemist." She flashed Pop Fizz a look that was hard to place and he gave her an equally strange glance. They seemed to have a whole conversation with a few facial expressions piled on top of one another.

It might have been a strange practice and an equally awkward time to eat in Takhil's eyes but the ease of the party as a whole seemed to calm the centaur. How long his calm would last was the question.  
>"Heads up," Breaker said softly. He raised a rounded arm to halt the party's progression. "Now it gets interesting. A fork in the road. Do we go left and stay in the forest or do we go right and enter the valley?"<br>Ahead of them perhaps a hundred yards off the landscape changed. Both paths did a fair job of hiding what they had to offer. The forest seemed to curve so the clumped trees blocked the view of what waited for them. The trees themselves had begun to change and looked more normal. They were no less dead but they weren't quite as twisted.  
>The valley was much the same. The trees tapered off into nothing and the sloping walls of the valley appeared to be made of wet clay. They were smooth over all and only marred by a few long fissures akin to fingers or claws being dragged over them.<p>

"I somehow get the feeling we're not going to be outside for long," Shadow mused. She shook another thorn from her paw. Then again the Darkness could just keep them in the bloody forest until they went stir crazy from thorns in the foot.  
>"Not outside? Is that good or bad?" The apprehension was back in Takhil's voice. His hooves pawed at the dirt where he had worn thorns away and he looked over his shoulder again. The cliff had stopped moving, that was a good sign right?<br>In unison Shadow and Pop Fizz raised their ears and swiveled them around.  
>"You heard it too?" the dragon whispered.<br>Pop nodded, "Company. All around us. Phantoms maybe?" Discretely he rolled up his bag of snacks and handed it off to Seraph to return to his pack. For the moment he remained in his smaller size and instead took a potion from his belt.  
>"Or Darkspawn. There were enough of 'em present. If we say fight, Takhil ya fight. If we say run then ya run. Got it?" Dino-Rang informed the centaur.<br>"I uh, yeah," Takhil sighed and ran a hand over his head and hair. "Yeah. I can do that." At last he heard what the dragon and gremlin had. Whatever it was he couldn't make out. It seemed the harder he tried the more distant it became. It was voices, however, he was sure of it. But where they came from and what made them was unknown.

"Incoming!" Breaker boomed suddenly, ducking. A wave of Darkness rolled over their heads as everyone else hit the ground. The wave dispersed around them and beings flickered into view from the residual traces of the wave. The beings were wraith-like; tall and thin, with bodies of pale smoke and claws that were long and grasping. They lunged for the stunned group with a shriek.  
>"Looks like we're runnin'! We can't take 'em here, damn things have us cornaed!" Dino-Rang was the first to react, sending up a fist of stone to clear the way in front of them. The Phantoms hissed but most importantly they refused to budge from in front of the forest path. Seraph blasted a flare through to the path leading to the valley and the pulse of Light rushed across the space.<br>"If they want us to go that way then we go that way," Shadow gladly raced through the gap in the ranks, punching her wings into the Phantoms that tried to grab her. Takhil galloped after her, tearing through on her heels and entering the valley. Pop Fizz threw a potion into a Phantom and not waiting to see the result hurried into the valley. Seraph followed as she gathered up her long blonde hair into a ponytail and then Dino-Rang came through. Breaker waited until the very last possible second then launched himself into the valley. A wall of dull grey stone shot up, blocking out the Phantoms who scrabbled ineffectively against the rock that Breaker had put up.

Panting Shadow scanned their surroundings and noted how the area seemed to narrow and the stone arched more and more towards making a ceiling of rock over their heads. "I was right," she murmured. The fissures in the walls they'd been able to see were thin and long. As the valley progressed they got larger and larger until at the other side of the valley there was a jagged hole in the far wall, large enough to squeeze through.  
>"The wall I put up is enchanted with Light to keep to the Phantoms back. It won't hold forever though. So let's get through that hole." Breaker started moving forwards, and shooting a glance behind, the rest of the party followed in his wake trudging through the tacky clay that slowed progress. Takhil flinched and skittered forwards when the first Phantom broke over the wall with a wail. Shadow turned around and shot a bolt of magic into the creature and it dissipated back into the Darkness. The dragoness shook her head, her grey crest of feathers raised in agitation, and picked up her pace.<br>When they reached the hole in the valley's wall several Phantoms were on their tail with the pack following close behind. There was no time for discussion; Breaker took the rear and sealed them in again once everyone had passed the threshold.  
>"It's dark," Takhil muttered, positioning himself in the centre of the group, glancing around the close walls that pressed in on them.<br>Pop Fizz glanced the centaur's way. He was shaking. The gremlin would have thought that maybe a pirate would have been less frightened of the events that had taken place so far but Takhil didn't seem able to cope. The centaur had admitted he'd never been Swallowed before; it was a lot to take in at once. Pop Fizz hoped the Light that Takhil had ingested would be enough to keep him from flat out panic when they got to the focal point of the Darkness. It would be hard going once they got there. The Darkness had been toying with them thus far; it wanted to really break them and would do so right as they reached its Anchor. Seraph glanced Pop Fizz's way and gave him a small nod in answer to his unspoken concern. The Light inside Takhil was still working.  
>The elf raised her hand and sent another flare out in front of her. Unlike her last flare this one pulsed along gently, illuminating the shift from clay to stone walls carved with symbols that seemed to writhe and shrink back from the Light.<p>

"Tha Darkness sure loves its temples," Dino-Rang made sure he didn't brush up against any of the carvings. It was impossible to know if the Darkness had decided to trap them or not, but Dino-Rang had learned the hard way not to take the risk. He pushed his way to the front as they came to a low ceilinged, circular room. A grille covered part of the floor and symbols littered the paved floor. From the grille issued low moaning and scratching noises, and the metal of the grille flared with charms that ensured anyone who stepped on it would soon find themselves sharing a space with whatever was trapped by the grille.  
>"Careful, Dino," Seraph warned. The elf's eyes never stopped roaming the room and she held a hand up as if feeling for something.<br>The Skylander grunted a response in return, eyeing the carved cobbles carefully. He recognised most of the symbols. Putting a foot cautiously down on a stone marked with a safe rune and held his breath; nothing happened. Slowly Dino-Rang advanced through the room. Once a dart came whistling towards him as he took a gamble and stepped on a stone he didn't know the meaning of, but couldn't continue onwards without treading upon it. He stopped the dart just in time with his gauntlet.  
>"Hurry," Breaker urged him, glancing back at the tunnel they'd followed, "I can feel the Phantoms breaking down the wall I put up." Dino-Rang gave his partner another grunt, and proceeded.<br>Once Dino-Rang made it to the other side Pop Fizz, who had been watching him intently, pulled a potion from his bag, dabbed his feet with the mixture and hopped across the floor replicating the safe path. The potion he'd used glowed luminescent green on the carvings he'd walked on. Only once everyone save Takhil had made it across did they realise the problem. Being the only other quadruped in the group meant that Takhil couldn't make it across. Shadow had managed only by balancing on her hind legs and using her half folded wings to keep her steady, and even then she had to leap the last couple of stones because she was beginning to topple.

"How do I cross?" Takhil looked at the others, his eyes wide.  
>Shadow frowned, tilting her head. "There is a way," the dragoness began, crest feathers lowered as she continued, "It's dangerous though. I think it could be possible for you to jump onto the grille, then immediately jump off. Depending on spell delay you could just barely make it." Takhil stared at Shadow, who tried to meet his eyes.<br>The centaur gave a brief, curt nod. "I'll do it," he responded. Shadow motioned everyone back, giving the centaur plenty of space to land.  
>The pirate bunched his muscles, took a running start and soared across the floor. He landed with a clatter of hooves on the grille. Takhil bunched them again, but as his front hooves left the floor the grille gave way beneath him, and his hind legs went down. For a moment he hung in the air and it looked like he would make it. Then he went tumbling into the pit beneath the grille.<p>

"Takhil!" Shadow cried, racing forward to help her friend. A rock wall came up in front of her and she slowed her pace so she didn't slam against it. Claws hit the vertical stone as she rebounded. The wall went down and Breaker came up behind the stricken dragoness as she prepared to dive down after her friend.  
>"Leave him. We need you to help us when we get to the Anchor. The Darkness took him to mess with your head, don't let it," the steely furred minotaur cautioned.<br>Shadow turned angrily, opening her mouth to snarl at him. Then she slumped, wings drooping. "I'm sorry, Takhil," she sighed, turning away. Breaker was right, she could do nothing for her friend without endangering her life and thus their chances of breaking out of the Shroud. Breaker nodded to her as Seraph said a soft prayer for Takhil and they continued on through the tunnel. Soon it began to slope upward and eventually they came to a large cavern.

As one they stepped out into the gloomy space. Phantoms whirled in behind them but instead of attacking they continued forwards before they compressed into each other and vanished. They left a large, dark smudge where they had been.  
>"I don't like tha look of this," Dino-Rang muttered as the smudge began to move, growing larger and twisting its form. Then it began to rise into the air and take shape. Darkness collected, creating a fanged maw that opened in four directions like a sinister toothed flower It then molded an oily torso with four arms tipped with wicked claws. Spurs jutted as hooved legs formed and barbs grew from the ends of lashing tails. Four flat, glassy eyes stared at them before the demon, physical manifestation of the Darkness, roared. Darkspawn, simple corrupted individuals, surged unseen from the corners of the room.<br>"Why couldn't it have just been a Raider as the Anchor?" Pop Fizz moaned, surging into his larger form and digging potions out of his pack. He lead the charge as the others spread out into the room tackling the Darkness head on.

Seraph ran right for the centre of the room and the demon. If they destroyed it then they could break the Shroud and any other enemies would be killed when the Darkness retreated. Pop Fizz bounded to her side and began to harry at the creature, who snapped at him and grabbed him, wrestling the gremlin, trying to get a strike in with its tails. Seraph sent flares into the Anchor's sides, distracting and hurting it, trying to help her Familiar win the tussle. The demon turned on her, pushing Pop Fizz her way so the elf had no choice but to dodge to the side and let up her attacks. Pop Fizz stumbled, righted himself and grabbed a new potion; a red one that hissed ominously when he uncorked it.  
>"Make a big boom," he whispered to it and chucked the potion in the general direction of the demon, pushing Seraph behind him and shielding his eyes.<br>Seconds later the potion hit the ground, shattering and then exploding violently in a ball of fire that engulfed the demon. The shockwave ruffled Pop Fizz's fur, covering him with debris and soot, and Seraph's hair whipped in the wind from where she stood behind him. They opened their eyes, spinning back and facing the demon, Light glowing from the elf's hands and a new potion in the gremlin's claws. They stopped dead.

"That's it?" Shadow exclaimed incredulously, jumping off the back of the ursine creature she'd been biting, the bear collapsed as well as all the other Darkspawn as she made her way to the centre of the room.  
>"I've neva seen a Shroud taken down so fast," Dino-Rang sheathed his boomerangs.<br>Breaker arched a surprisingly slender eyebrow next to him. "That was either an extremely volatile cocktail in your potion, Pop Fizz, or the Darkness was very mild this time around," Breaker commented. "Though I believe it was probably both." Pop Fizz shrugged in answer, reverting to his smaller form and pulling his snacks back out of his pack.

Beams of moonlight began to show through the cavern roof and soon the Shroud dissolved around them, fading away as the field returned. Shadow scanned the area once the Shroud was completely gone. First she spotted the brambles where Repala was sitting up groggily. She kept looking. Where was Takhil? If the Shroud was gone she should be able to see him but he wasn't anywhere.  
>"You did it," a weak voice croaked.<br>Shadow looked to see where the voice had come from and finally spotted Takhil. He was buried up to his humanoid waist in dirt and his dagger was stuck in the chest of a Darkspawn right in front of him. Shadow rushed over. "You made it!" The dragoness cried happily. She stuck her claws into the soil and began to dig around Takhil.  
>"Let me help, sheila," Dino-Rang strode over. Closing his eyes he concentrated; the dirt around Takhil lifted up, held up by the Skylander's power. Then Dino-Rang gestured and the dirt flew away to land in a heap by the lake. Takhil pulled himself free from the hole it left. Shadow fussed over him, looking ready to burst with happiness. The scarred tissue that covered his rear from the battle before the Shroud had Swallowed them gave her pause until she remembered that was the best Pop Fizz could do for the pirate captain. The centaur held up a hand to stop her from her thorough examination.<p>

"I'm fine. The hole dumped me in a pit full of enemies I could fight, for once," Takhil grinned, stomping his legs in an effort to clean off some of the dirt. Then he sobered up, "Where's Repala?" He asked, casting his gaze around worried.  
>"I'm right here!" The avian pirate pulled herself from the brambles, shaking her quills. But there was something wrong. Repala had light golden eyes and blue plumage, not navy feathers that were almost tar black and pure white eyes. Both Guardians began to summon Light to enclose her so they could free her from the Darkness but she beat them, running over to where Takhil stood motionless. Grabbing her captain's dagger she whirled around and thrust it at the centaur.<br>"Repala!" Takhil cried shocked but didn't dodge. And was he was impaled, the blade driving through his chest. Shadow roared in surprise and leapt at Repala, pinning the corrupted deputy to the ground as Takhil's corpse hit the dirt. The dragoness opened her mouth wide, light blue and purple smoke trailing from her jaws as she prepared a magic bolt to kill Repala. A pulse of Light pushed her off as she let the bolt go and it flew off harmlessly into a nearby hill to explode in a shower of soil.  
>Seraph, obviously upset and furious, clamped a struggling Repala in Light, purging her of her taint as she writhed on the ground. Shadow lay still in the grass where she'd been flung, eyes blank.<br>To make matters worse at that same moment Dino-Rang had disappeared. His Bonded Guardian lurched at the pulling sensation he too felt then went wide-eyed with the sudden nothingness that followed. "Dino-Rang!" Breaker called, looking around to see where his partner had gone off to. Instead he saw a crumpled figure on the ground not quite as bulky as Dino-Rang but no less muscular. The golem slowly sank to the ground once he processed who he'd spotted. It was a human. A Jumper. Dino-Rang had become a Jumper himself.  
>"He's gone… to Earth." Breaker seemed to lose all hope, lowering his head. Seraph finished cleansing Repala, who immediately began to sob as she remembered what she'd done. Repala sat heavily on the ground and stared despondently at the body of her captain.<br>The Archon of Life was torn on who to tend to at that moment. Repala wasn't known as well and would probably shove the Archon away; Shadow too was in need of consoling following Takhil's death. And then there was Breaker who had just lost his Bonded Brother to Earth. Pop Fizz gave his Guardian a look that said he could see to Shadow. With that Seraph made up her mind and moved over to her fellow Guardian, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and comforting him. She also sent a little of her sleep inducing pollen out the unconscious human's way in case the visitor woke up too early.

Pop Fizz walked over to cajole Shadow from where she lay on the ground, "Come on, all we need to do is check out the ship and then we can go. Don't make me do it on my own," he begged. Maybe if he could just get her focused on work it would be enough. Shadow pushed herself up slowly, getting to her feet. Then she started walking towards the ship, not saying a word. Pop Fizz followed, glancing back at Seraph so she understood where he was going.  
>Shadow jumped onto the tilted deck then made her way to the trapdoor that was their path into the hold. The wood and iron clad door was was stuck fast.<br>Pop Fizz bounded up behind her and noticed. "You want to open it, or shall I?" The gremlin asked. In response Shadow opened her jaws and shot a blast of magic into the trapdoor, which exploded into splinters of wood as metal that showered the pair. "Ladies first," Pop Fizz gestured to the trap door, grinning. He knew he should probably just shut up because Shadow was in no mood for talking. But he believed that sooner or later she had to answer him and that might help her. Of course, he wasn't a guidance councilor like Seraph had been before she joined the ranks of the Guardians so he didn't really know what he was talking about. Right then however he was the best thing Shadow had. Breaker needed Seraph. She would understand much more what Breaker was feeling and going through; a thought that made the gremlin somber himself.

Shadow leaped down through the hole she'd made into the lower decks and scanned the area once Pop Fizz had joined her and his glowing potions lit up what the moonlight couldn't reach. She wrinkled her nose at the powerful stench coming from further along the dim corridor.  
>"Dead bodies smell terrible," Pop Fizz complained once they found the source of the smell. Smuggler bodies littered the floor, already beginning the process of decay. Either the crash was that old or the touch of the Darkness had sped it up. The two rescuers were in the hold now and a hole had been punched in the bottom, the lake showing through in ripples of blue light that danced along the walls. Barrels and crates lay burst open and Shadow's sensitive nose picked up the tell tale scent of…<br>"Nightsong," she breathed, breaking her silence.  
>Pop Fizz whistled. "No wonder someone shot them down. That's one nasty drug."<br>Shadow went over to a smashed crate and dug around the grain sacks that had been used to disguise the small packets of the crushed black petals of the Nightsong flower. The petals, when smoked, created powerful hallucinations and waking terrors. The sap created the same effect except more potently. The damage Nightsong did to a person was terrible so it was illegal almost everywhere including cities under Raider control.

"We should destroy all of this." Shadow blasted the contents of the crate in front of her, reducing it to smithereens.  
>Pop Fizz nodded, digging into a barrel of his own that held packets of golden sap hidden by wineskins. "Let's get clear first and then we can firebomb the area," The gremlin left the barrel, continued farther down the hold and jumped out into the lake. He splashed about to clean his fur from evidence of the battle and went back to shore. Shadow followed his lead, diving into the cool water and cleaning her fur of the coating of blood and dirt it had picked up before coming up to the shore. She stood next to Pop Fizz to shake herself dry.<br>"Hey!" Pop Fizz shouted, jumping back from the spray of water. he had only finished doing the same himself.  
>Shadow cracked a smile but checked his belt out of the corner of her eye. She wanted to make sure the alchemist hadn't picked up any Nightsong sap. Seraph had confessed to her about Pop Fizz's history before he joined the Skylanders, where he'd made substances similar to Nightsong. She wasn't going to say anything though. If the gremlin had picked some up she hoped Seraph would find out or he'd feel too guilty to use it.<p>

They made their way back to where Seraph and Breaker still sat. Repala and Takhil's body were surrounded by torch wielding Mist Wraiths who'd clearly come looking for them once the Shroud had gone.  
>Astrin, one of the two large pirates who'd help them pack up their camp, walked over to Shadow. "We will still take you out of here," the pirate said, even though there was a steely glint in her eyes magnified by the orange glow of the torches.<br>"I'm sorry about Takhil… and thank you for doing all of this. I will pay our debt to your crew back, I promise," Shadow replied solemnly, bowing her head. She cringed at how pathetic her words sounded, how could she ever express how she felt about Takhil's death?  
>Astrin nodded curtly. "Come if you're coming, then," the pirate turned away. Shadow signaled to Seraph, and she and Pop Fizz helped Breaker into standing before Pop Fizz scooped up the human, who was still out like a light, and they began the slow trudge back to the ship.<p>

After sending the smuggler ship up in flames the Mist Wraiths left the Dead Zone. The minute they were clear Seraph raised her hand and portaled them away with words of thanks and a sincere apology. They arrived at one of the Core of Light portals that ringed the great beam on the grounds of the Citadel. Almost immediately they were spotted by a Skylands human Guardian and checked over with sensors that would detect anyone aligned with Darkness.  
>"All clear," their Guardian pronounced, saluting them. Then she stopped and spotted the human Pop Fizz was carrying. The Skylands human possessed mint eyes and dressed in the common style of her position; decorative armor. The human held by Pop Fizz was dressed strangely by regional standards in combat boots and stony grassland patterned fatigues.<br>"Another Jumper?" The Guardian sighed. Jumper was the name given to the displaced persons from Earth. A Skylands resident was referred to as a Jumper as well if they ended up on Earth. "He'll go to the Citadel, into the ward with the rest. Remember what this one looks like if you want to talk to him later. Arin!" She whistled, and a wolf man came trotting over.  
>"Yeah?" The red furred wolf grinned, pointed teeth hanging out over his lip. The Guardian gestured to the Jumper in Pop Fizz's arms.<br>"I'll take him. 'Nother one to the ward?" Pop Fizz handed over the human to Arin and the Guardian nodded to answer the wolf's question. He took off towards the Citadel and the Guardian saluted to them, before striding away to check a newly arrived Skylander on the portal next to them.

The four new arrivals stepped off the portal and made their way to the centre of the lawn where the Core sat. Right then dusk was falling on the Isles of Light, whereas in Misty Vale it had been night for a while. Due to a time difference between Misty Vale and the Isles the sun was just setting. Everything was bathed in the soft golden light of the Core with tinges of orange from the falling sun which was turning the sky to a backdrop of tangerine strewn with shreds of curling white.  
>"When are we going to report to Eon?" Shadow asked wearily, looking over to the Core. She could see the faint shape of Eon moving around within as he held conference with a stream of Skylanders and Guardians that sought to report to him.<p>

"Not right now. I'm goin' to take Breaker to his quarters, find out where they put that Jumper and then I'll meet you back out here. We'll report after that," Seraph replied, taking the still mute Breaker by the elbow and guiding him up the path to the towering white stone building that was the Citadel.  
>Pop Fizz didn't follow his partner but rather turned around and made his way to an archway laced with vines. Once there he slumped down and rested amongst the leafy greenery twined around the arch. Shadow lay down on her side next to him, tucking her feet up and curling her tail in the grass. They rested in silence for a while watching the varied crowd of Skylanders, Guardians and others go about their business hurrying to and fro across the lawns between the Citadel and other, smaller buildings.<br>"Hey, look," Pop Fizz nudged the dusky dragoness excitedly, his ears perked straight up, rings bouncing wildly. Shadow raised her head in the direction the gremlin pointed. First she saw Spyro strolling down a path. The purple dragon was calmly heading over to the Core of Light, his golden horns and intricate plate and mail armour gleaming. The Paladin medallion of his station hung on red ribbon around his neck swinging as he turned his head to converse with the dragoness who walked next to him. It was Cynder, resplendent as Spyro in her Paladin banded armour and her silver spiked choker and bracers. Shadow scowled at the smirking gremlin next to herself, who was having trouble keeping himself from laughing. He was a Paladin himself even if he chose not to wear anything to indicate it.  
>"Doesn't she look gorgeous? Such grace and beauty, she holds her head up so proudly!" Pop Fizz chortled, nudging Shadow and winking, giving her a literal hint. Shadow pushed him over so he flailed about in the grass and turned her head away, pointedly ignoring him. Pop Fizz shook his head at the dragoness once he got up. Shadow and Cynder were so obvious around each other he was surprised they hadn't noticed and gone for it yet.<p>

The two Paladin dragons passed and went about their business without Shadow ever making the effort to call out to Cynder despite the gremlin's best efforts to draw Cynder's attention himself. Seraph came out perhaps half an hour after she left to find Pop Fizz munching away on snacks; beef jerky this time. Sometimes he occasionally threw strips Shadow's way. The dragoness snapped them up before they hit the ground and chewed them just as noisily as the gremlin beside her.  
>Seraph smiled warmly at their relaxed nature. "Come on you too, we've got to report to Eon now," the elf called them up and Pop Fizz made a big show of putting away his jerky and hauling himself up. Shadow got up smoothly, stretching like a cat with her rear end in the air before she shook her feathered head and trotted over to Seraph.<br>The sun had set by then and as the three approached the Core of Light they stepped from the shadows into a warm pool of light. Seraph walked over to a fellow Archon in charge of deciding who would speak to Eon next. The poor Guardian was hard pressed because there was still a swarm trying to talk to the Portal Master. The Archon of Tech, a golding with a cybernetic leg, recognised Seraph who leaned over and whispered something to him. The Tech Archon promptly sighed and waved them through. Eon smiled at them as they stepped towards him and those who stood in a half circle in front of him. Eight Skylanders stood with Eon, the Paladin Council, a rotating Council whose members were the elite Skylanders, the ones sometimes referred to as Cores. Sometimes an Archon would also sit with the Council. Spyro today sat at the Council's head, with Cynder and Jet-Vac on either side. With them were Hot Head, Stink Bomb, Wallop, Drobot and Echo,

"Seraph, Pop Fizz, Shadow," Eon greeted, his features briefly solidified in the Light. Seraph dipped her head back and began their report, Pop Fizz and Shadow chipping in where needed. All was told from the picking up of the distress beacon to being Swallowed by the Darkness. A range of emotions was displayed when Seraph got to the loss of Takhil and Dino-Rang then the firebombing of the ship once its cargo was discovered.  
>Once she'd finished talking Jet-Vac handed the Archon a glass of water; something kept on hand for long-winded reports. "You had a hard mission, but you did well to complete it," the Sky Baron said, patting Seraph's shoulder before she stepped back into the half circle with her fellow Council members.<br>Eon nodded. "Jet-Vac is right, you continued on through trying circumstances. I'll take Breaker off active duty if he wishes," the Grandmaster shook his head sadly, his beard swaying gently. "We keep losing so many to Earth. I can only hope that Dino-Rang makes it to a safe house. Drobot, add to your servers the information about the Nightsong smuggling and make sure all ships in that area are searched in case that wasn't the only smuggler's load."  
>The tech dragon nodded and gears clicked in his helmet.<br>"Shall we break Council for today? It's late and not many have anything left to tell," Jet-Vac gestured a claw around the circle. While Seraph had been reporting others waiting had trickled away, reporting to Archons and Paladins who weren't part of the Council that day but who would be on the Council some other day and could therefore take reports.  
>"Yes. Eon, is that alright?" Spyro stood up. Eon nodded and faded his features away into the Core of Light, and with that the Council disbanded.<p>

Jet-Vac strode over to them. "I'm sending the newest batch of letters to Earth tomorrow," she informed Seraph.  
>"Hopefully they'll take notice of these this time," the elf replied. She motioned for them to continue off talking but Jet-Vac held up a hand.<br>"Shadow, it's around mid-morning in Motleyville if you need to make a call," the female Sky Baron informed the dragoness who had been trailing behind with Pop Fizz.  
>Shadow raised her head, startled. "Thanks," she replied, angling her course to take her to the front of the Citadel where the communications booth was. She did catch the look Seraph sent her as she left and Shadow smiled. Her friend would help her honour Takhil, then.<p>

"Hello," a voice said behind Shadow. The dragon jumped, startled as she was torn out of her thoughts so abruptly and spun around to see Cynder standing amused behind her.  
>"Oh- hi, Cynder," Shadow stammered, the normally cool dragoness looking slightly frantic but trying to hide it. She wasn't alone; as much as Cynder tried to hide it she too was looking slightly nervous.<br>Cynder looked down suddenly. "Do you mind if I join you?" She asked and Shadow stared wide eyed.  
>"No! I mean, sorry, I have to call Sharpfin… we owe a crew of pirates and I've got to tell him. And then I have duties to the dead," Shadow was inwardly cursing her luck but determined to do her duty and pay her debt to the Mist Wraiths. Cynder looked slightly crestfallen and disappointed but she plastered a smile on her face.<br>"Okay then. Maybe meet you in the Commons later? I could always help with the rites if you need," the Skylander suggested. Shadow nodded quickly and excusing herself hurried off, trying to look like she wasn't running away. Cynder let out an almost inaudible sigh and walked the other way.  
>"They are so awkward. Like teenagers on their first date," Pop Fizz commented.<br>Spyro, who had stood there watching the exchange with the gremlin, chuckled. "They just don't listen when you drop hints to them that the other feels the same way, though." The dragon replied shaking his head.

* * *

><p>Note from Seraph: <em>Just a heads up that after this point chapters are going to jump between locations for a while. Dino-Rang isn't gone, he's still very much in the game.<em>


	4. III

**III.**

Muffled voices spoke a language that Dino-Rang didn't understand. It was vaguely familiar to him but he didn't speak it himself. He was slipping in and out of consciousness and his eyes were too heavy to open at the moment. Annoyance over the jostling sensation threatened to shatter the tenuous hold Dino-Rang had on sleep. It threatened but didn't seem to be strong enough. The saurian felt lazy and compliant, whatever was going on didn't concern him. It irritated him, yes, but it wasn't that bad and easy to ignore. The Skylander felt himself hauled up by the arms and his head rolled to the side. Dino struggled to crack open an eye. When he managed all he could tell was sunlight shone strongly but not what was around him or even what the ground looked like. His heavy lids closed again and Dino-Rang was only halfway aware of the fact his feet were being dragged behind him.

The Skylander could feel the heat of the landscape just barely. Had he been able to take in his surroundings he would have seen a vast, dry grassy plain dotted with straight column-like baobab trees and stony massifs. In the distance the tell-tale signs of buildings rose up in the thickest cluster of green.  
>"<em>A mother fucking dragon!<em>" one of the dark skinned humans that had climbed out of the back of a beat up old cream and brown pickup-truck exclaimed in French. He wore a dirty plaid shirt that was threadbare on the elbows and only buttoned by two in the middle so the tails of the shirt and the collar flapped open in the wind to show the smooth skin of his abdomen crisscrossed with thin but long scars. "_Shit, where'd you pick up this freak_?" He eyed the two burly and equally dark skinned men that held up the stocky reptile that was as tall if not taller than them. He adjusted the rifle he had slung over his shoulder and while he kept the gun's muzzle down his finger never strayed far from the trigger.  
>"<em>We was collectin' taxes from the locals when old man Rambo vanished and this monster was left in his place<em>." Both of the men carrying Dino-Rang were dressed in faded and ripped jeans with old t-shirts stained by sweat, dirt and riddled with holes. They had guns slung over their shoulders and currently situated on their backs and out of the way.

The first man grinned widely, his smile was riddled by black gaps where teeth were missing. His teeth were white which meant the missing teeth were due to a rough lifestyle rather than poor dental care. "_Rambo's gone_?" he questioned again. That wasn't the man's real name but as no one knew what he was called they had defaulted to Rambo because of his guerrilla assault tactics. Not that the three men with Dino-Rang were any different in how they handled things.  
>"<em>Yeah<em>," the second of the burly men said in a voice that was too high for his appearance. "_One moment he was there yellin' at us and waving an assault rifle threatenin' to blow our heads off if we didn't quit taxin' the poor sods in the slums and the next _FLASH _he was gone! Rifle hit the dirt and we saw Godzilla in his place_."  
>The first man approached the green scaled beast and grabbed him hard by the chin before he lifted up the heavy, blocky head. "<em>You're sure he's sedated? His eyes keep trying to open<em>." He looked back to the red spike plates that lined Dino-Rang's back and snorted. "_Like one of those, what're they called, stegosaurus dinosaur things_?" The man snorted as he grabbed one of the leather and metal plated gauntlets the Skylander wore. "_Armor means he's a fighter. I think we should put this one down. Too risky to keep around and torture._"  
>"<em>Yeah well I wanna string him up first and take pictures like we was huntin' 'im. We ain't gonna let this one go without havin' a bit o' fun<em>."  
>"<em>You can still do it after he's dead. Do that back at the yard. I'm not cleaning blood out of the bed again. Load him up<em>," the armed man thumped the back of the truck after he let the gate down. Another man, this one looking like a boy that just reached manhood knelt down at the edge of the truck bed and held his hands out to help the two burly men slide the drugged Skylander up into the truck.

The plaid shirt man opened the passenger side door on the cabin and hopped in next to another man. This one was different from the others in that he had pale skin and sandy hair. He was dressed better than the others but no less dusty. He pushed up the brim of the cowboy hat he wore and glanced sideways at the dark skinned man.  
>"We're gold," the dark skinned man said in English before he thumped the dashboard to signal the white man could drive. The engine started up with a growl, it needed work but it ran at least.<br>"You loaded up a good one. You think the meat will be any good for market?"  
>The dark skinned man looked out the dirty back window and knocked on it to get the three men in the back to move so he could better see the cargo. "We sell it as crocodile or caiman meat it should move."<br>The white man pulled off the dirt road and onto an old, in need of repairs paved road. He drove half on and half off at times to avoid the massive potholes. One escaped him and angry shouts in French from the bed of the truck drifted to his ears. "Fuck these roads," the white man scowled and took his hat off to sit between the two of them on the seat. "What of the taxes?"  
>The man in plaid propped his arm up in the window of the truck and looked back to the lackies in the bed. "Rambo threw them off. Then Godzilla there popped up when Rambo vanished and they got side-tracked."<br>The white man snorted, "You're getting back out later. You make these piles of waste think you've gone soft and they'll strike back. We didn't take this town from the police and government just to lose it to the dumb fucks that live in pig shit."  
>The other man fell silent and simply listened to the chatter from the three in the bed of the truck.<p>

Five minutes later and the white man slowed to a stop. "Do something about them," he growled as he put the truck in park. The road ahead was blocked by a thin, dark haired, pale skinned and almond eyed man flanked by a very short and squat man with enough facial hair to make up for his lack of height and two heavily modified and armored vehicles that resembled tanks. There were more figures in the vehicles so it was hard to judge just how many people stood between the lone pickup and the open road.  
>"With pleasure," the plaid shirted man grinned crookedly. He didn't need to say anything to the others in the bed of the truck. The two burly men armed themselves and jumped out the side while the scrawny youth dug up what looked like a rocket launcher and propped it over the roof of the truck.<p>

"Chinaman!" the slimmer of the three dark skinned men called to the almond eyed person. "Shortstack! What brings you out here this fine morning?" He flashed them an oily grin as he cocked his rifle to send the usual no-nonsense greeting.  
>"You've got something we want," the Asian man replied in a voice thick with an accent. He was a long way from home. He wasn't dressed like the dark skinned men or even the white man. He wore a suit and tie with highly polished shoes and kept his hair neatly combed.<br>"An we intent t' take it," the short, hairy man added. He looked wild and wooly dressed as a biker in leather chaps over jeans with travel worn boots, a vest plastered with patches and bare arms covered in tattoos. His eyes were hidden behind sunglasses but his thick, bushy eyebrows were obviously narrowed and pinched together.  
>"Never ceases to amaze me how brazen you are, Chinaman."<br>The Asian man tilted his head, as much as he hated being called 'Chinaman' he didn't think the other group was privileged enough to know his name. "Poaching is poaching," he replied simply.  
>The dark skinned man laughed and after a while the two burly men that flanked him laughed as well. "Such a bleeding heart, you care for these demons?" he sneered.<br>"Life is life," Chinaman nodded. "No matter where it originated. You can't judge them before you know them."  
>Plaid shirt smirked and shifted his rifle. "Looks like we got us a bit of a stalemate right here. Your tanks are blocking our path and we've got a rocket launcher to punch a hole through your little armored paddywagons. So why don't you save us some ammo and we spare you a loss of wheels and you just let us pass, hmm?"<br>"If you give us your cargo you're free to pass un-accosted," Chinaman replied with a smirk.  
>"No can do, that's money in the bank." Plaid shirt barked something to the two burly men beside him and they all raised their weapons. "Move off the road or we will destroy one or both tanks and take your lives."<p>

A commotion behind the dark skinned men turned their attention quickly. A gunshot sounded and glass shattered at the same time an inhuman roar shook the ground. The youth that had been holding the rocket launcher rolled over the roof then hood of the truck before he ran yelling hysterically out into the tall grass. Plaid shirt yelled after him and shook a fist but the youth kept running. The driver's side door on the truck had opened and the white man had climbed out with a handgun that he kept firing towards the back of the truck. The hammer clicked harmlessly a few times before he was thrown like a rag doll over the hood of the truck. A moment later the large, hulking form of the green reptile walked up around the truck with his heavy boomerangs in hand. The three men from the truck opened fire and were amazed when a rock wall shot up from the earth to absorb every bullet while the boomerangs sailed around to strike each armed man in the hand to effectively disarm them.

Plaid shirt fumbled with his rifle. The strap kept it within reach but the strike to his hand had left it numb and he couldn't get a good grip on the weapon again. He whirled around to see Chinaman and Shortstack had retreated to the armored vehicles where they sat silently waiting to see what transpired.  
>"<em>Boss! This one ain't like the others. He's got powers<em>!" It seemed the burly man in the black t-shirt had jinxed himself when a stone block that looked like a crude fist jumped up from the dirt and clocked him in the chin hard enough to make him stand up on his toes. He fell back in a heap and stared up at the cloudless sky in a daze.  
>Plaid shirt glanced to the white man that lay prone in the dirt on the opposite side of the truck that he had climbed out of. "<em>He don't pay us enough for this shit. Get the fuck out of here, leave the prick<em>!" he bellowed to his companions. Mildly he thought of the irony when he had cursed the youth for running when now he was doing that very thing.

The Skylander threw his boomerangs again to knock the fleeing men off their feet. Upon the returns of his weapons he aimed carefully again and managed to cut the straps that held each of their weapons. In their haste to get away none of them stopped to reclaim what were possibly quite expensive items. With a snort Dino-Rang turned back around and knelt next to the white man. He grabbed him by the hair and lift his head up. The man was out cold. Dino-Rang snarled, his scaled lips peeled back from viciously curved teeth before he hoisted the human up by the back of his shirt and carried him back to the bed of the truck to toss him in like a sack of grain. The rocket launcher had already been destroyed; that was the first thing Dino did when he emerged from his stupor. When the Skylander came back around to the front of the truck he was met by a peculiar sight.  
>A very short and dark skinned human girl, possibly a child, stood next to the man in the suit he had seen run for cover alongside what Dino-Rang instantly recognized as a dwarf.<br>"Do you speak English?" the man in the suit asked.  
>"I rusty, no use where I come from," the Skylander answered slowly and with some difficulty.<br>"_If it helps we can speak in Landian_," the dwarf spoke in Dino's native language. "_Welcome to Earth_," he held his hands out and motioned to the area around them. The dwarf switched languages before he continued. "Hope yer ready to spend every day fightin' for survival. No Darkness here yet but its a lot like home. 'Cept mosta these guys," he hooked a thumb towards the humans, "ain't never seen magic. Name's Slate. That's Wu and the girl's Izzy," he motioned to the two humans. "My guess is yer a Skylander. Paladin?"  
>"Dino-Rang," the saurian answered. He still had his boomerangs in hand. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the people before him just yet.<br>"Well, Dino-Rang, I would like to request that you join us, please. It isn't safe out here. Others like those thugs," Wu nodded to the truck the white man was hidden in, "run rampant around here. It's martial law and has been since the war. We never had a chance to recover before Skylandians started popping up in the place of our missing persons."

"And why should I trust ya?" Dino's sudden comfort with the language seemed to have relaxed his speech a little to sound more normal. Even the saurian blinked and placed a hand over his throat when he noticed the change.  
>"I thought it would make it easier for you," Izzy said softly. "Did I do it wrong?" she asked timidly. The little girl couldn't have been more than eight years old. Her black, wiry hair was tied up into pigtails on the side of her head and she wore a pale blue dress with white socks up to her knees and shiny black shoes. "I'm not very good with magic yet." She looked down in embarrassment and clasped her hands together before she rolled the toe of a shoe in the pothole on the road she stood at.<br>"It ain't safe t' talk here, Dino," Slate snorted as he stroked his beard. "Rod'll fill ya in on alla tha details iffin ye'll come with us t' base."  
>That got Dino's attention, "Rod?" he asked. "Skylander?"<br>"Reddish hair, blue skin. Air Element, yes," Wu answered. He held a hand out to the vehicles behind him and a dirt shark opened the door on one to peer out. "Please, come with us. You can decide to leave after speaking with others if you wish."  
>Reluctantly the dinosaur put his boomerangs back on his holster. "Alright, ya got my attention. We make a hop back ta base and I'll make my opinions and decisions afta that. What about tha bloke in tha back there?" Dino pointed to the beat up truck. "What about his stooges?"<br>"We can lose them easily," Wu smirked. "You'll understand soon enough."

Dino-Rang wasn't so sure he was comfortable with Skylands technology being in the hands of humans. Even if the humans he was with seemed to be friendly it made him nervous. But there he was, riding shotgun in a van turned tank with a little human girl that possessed magic and an older human that didn't seem to have any grasp of it with a dwarf sitting in the back next to a gillman. In the side mirror Dino-Rang saw the second tank van following them with a dirt shark behind the wheel and three elves as passengers.  
>Both tanks were hidden by an advanced cloaking device. Advanced in the fact it worked in stages. Once they had traveled out of sight from the bandits they had switched on the option to make the armor vanish. The vans looked like any other vehicle the humans might possess. Paint was dull, chipped and worn in places as well as covered with makeshift patches that were riveted in place to cover large areas of damage.<br>Conversation had died out for the moment. Izzy coughed occasionally or made a rustling sound as she shifted in the seat behind Dino-Rang but otherwise there was nothing but the hum of the engine and the crunching of tires over roads that were more dirt than paved. It was surreal for Dino-Rang, not many vehicles in Skylands still operated on wheels that restricted them to land travel.

The Skylander had expected the vans to stop in the town he had first seen in the distance. Wu had driven right through it and left it as a speck in the rear-view mirror. He told Dino-Rang that town was owned by the very people that had first captured him and as such wasn't safe. Wu had explained to him the sorry state of Earth and how the third World War had upset the whole balance. The world was still trying to recover, nations still fought one another and suddenly Skylands entered the picture with alien creatures that the warring factions were snapping up either for experimentation or slaughter.  
>The great cities of the world were in ruins. Names like New York, San Francisco, Houston, Sydney, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, London, Cairo and Tripoli didn't mean anything to Dino-Rang but Wu seemed crestfallen when speaking of them. He said rich nations had become poor and poor nations had developed rich centers while the rest of the nation fell further into poverty.<br>"So the world calls me and anyone else from Skylands demons, huh?" Dino-Rang broke the silence at long last.  
>"Aye. Those of us that can try t' blend in so that we can help th' others survive. Wu and Izzy are th' only humans I know that accept us and help us. Wu puts himself in danger ta keep us safe. And Izzy, poor lass, they've labeled her a witch and think she's infected by somethin' we brought from Skylands. Poor girl's family disowned her and left her to die."<p>

Dino glanced up in the rear view mirror and just barely caught Izzy's doleful brown eyes. It tugged at his heartstrings that humans could be so cruel to one so innocent. The dinosaur sighed and rested his crested head on the back of the seat. "Looks like we got our work cut out for us, ey? Gotta get Earth ta realize ain't nothing we can't help 'em with. We got good and bad among us like they no doubt do. Bloody fools."  
>"Before the war," Wu interjected, "There would have been a much higher chance for peace. Lots of bureaucratic red tape, but more peace talks and understanding. Now whoever can instil the most fear and has the bigger gun leads the scattered pockets of civilization in areas torn apart by war. You're in Madagascar, the city name isn't important. No one knows what to call them anymore anyway when the leaders change the names so often." Wu turned the wheel for perhaps the first time in almost two hours and drove off into an area of thick underbrush that curved enough to allow the path to be hidden unless someone knew where to look. He pressed a button on the modified console and Dino-Rang held his breath when the interior of the tank turned red. "We're completely hidden now," Wu said. "The underbrush will stamp out the dust plumes the tires kick up and will be the only thing that keeps the tank behind us from running into us."<p>

The drive was a good twenty minutes of winding underbrush travel, possibly less if a straight path was taken.  
>"It ain't much but we call it home and it's served us well," the dark blue scaled gillman spoke for the first time.<br>Dino-Rang shifted his eyes from the rearview mirror where he had watched the gillman speak to the area in front of him when the underbrush finally opened. Trees that he now understood to be called baobab towered over a small cluster of buildings. It looked like it had been a farm at one time. Dino saw old twisted fences made of rotten posts and barbed wire along with several barns, some nothing more than piles of timber, alongside one main house with smaller structures cropped up around it and made of a hodgepodge of building materials as well as styles reminiscent of Skylands.  
>A small field of tilled land sat in the middle of what Dino-Rang could see was rich and fertile soil. An elf in a large floppy hat was working the field next to an ent that reminded Dino-Rang of Arbo but had a blue face instead of cream.<br>Wu took the van turned tank into one of the open barns and turned off the cloaking device. The other tank van appeared suddenly alongside them and its occupants began to climb out and disperse into other groups that came to hear the news they brought back.

"So let me get this straight, you have a machine that picks up the magic spike that indicates a Jumper occurrence," Dino-Rang began as he climbed out of the vehicle and met Slate at the rear. He towered over the dwarf and when Wu came to stand next to them Dino couldn't help but wonder how it was possible for Slate to blend in with the humans being he was so short.  
>"We got us a few Skylands technomancers, yeah. Wu hasn't expressed any interest in learnin' this stuff and Izzy's got her hands full with her magic studies. Kinda hard now that we lost our only caster in th' group," Slate sighed.<br>Wu cleared his throat, "If you would come with me, Dino, I can take you to Rod. He'll be able to assuage your fears far better than I can."  
>"Look me up if ya need me," Slate saluted before he tromped off to join the dirt shark that had driven the other tank.<br>Dino-Rang let his eyes wander the barn turned garage. He saw a few other vehicles in it, all smaller and more discrete with one that looked better kept than the others and parked nearest the door. He saw perhaps nine Skylandians from different races walking about, conversing with one another or halfway hidden by the vehicles they were working on. Dino-Rang wasn't too sure he liked how dug in and comfortable they looked or not. He was still trying to get over the shock of being on Earth.

"Come on, Mister," Izzy prompted as she tugged on Dino's right arm. "Mister Rod will be waiting for you! I know they told him you were coming!" She tried again to budge the dinosaur and he gave in as he stooped down to pick the girl up. She giggled and was completely at ease with him when he put her on his shoulders and walked out the barn. Dino-Rang took heart in that fact, there was hope for Earth if a child he had just met was already giggling in his company.  
>Wu pointed to the old farm house, "The main building there is our base of operations. It has a few rooms in it, I take up one as does Izzy and there are three others. There's a vacancy if you want it. We hold council there and the main kitchen is also within. The cellars below store all of the food and necessities we need to live comfortably. The smaller buildings around it are like apartments that house everyone else. There's also vacancies in them if you don't wish to be in the main house. We have running water and a well. The place has been retrofitted to use generators for power since tapping into the lines could draw curious eyes right to us. There's television and radio that you can partake of to learn more about Earth when you're ready."<br>Fatigue had finally set in for the Skylander. "I think I might meet with Rod and go find sleep. Time's different here than where I came from. The sun should be settin' at home and I had a really long day." He watched a shorter than normal yellow gremlin run by tailed by a pale green skinned elf child and it was similar enough to remind him of the ordeal he had just been through involving the Shroud in Skylands. "A very long day," the saurian muttered.

Floorboards creaked under Wu's feet as he let Dino-Rang through the farm house. Dino had been into a few before back home and had to admit they looked a lot different on Earth. Or maybe it was just that particular house. there was no livingroom, rather it looked like a town hall with rows of chairs and a long table with seats for possibly a council to sit behind at the head of it all. Wu led Dino through a side door into a small sitting room that possessed a flight of stairs that lead to a balcony and hall to more rooms on the second floor. Wu directed Dino-Rang towards the chairs and where a dark skinned, rudy haired man with a neat trimmed beard and long hair tied back stood pouring a few drinks. He was dressed in a collared polo shirt with a pair of neatly pressed slacks and worn but no less nice penny loafers.  
>"I thought the only humans here were you and Izzy," Dino gave Wu a raised brow. He missed the smirk from the man as he set drinks on the little tables near the chairs.<br>"Izzy, sweetheart, why don't you go play with Oriel and Flint for a while," Wu said as he reached up to help the girl off Dino's shoulders.  
>"Aw! But I saw Flint chasin' Oriel again! They were probably fighting. I don't want to get in trouble because someone thinks I was part of it!" she protested with a pout. She wanted to stomp her foot in defiance but settled for folding her arms over her chest and scrunching her head down close to them.<br>"The elf and the gremlin?" Dino asked as he remembered how the two ran past him.  
>"Uh-huh!" Izzy nodded enthusiastically. "They're the only other kids here. I like Oriel the best, she's funny and soft like a cat!" Izzy giggled and turned her folded arms into a self hug. "She lets me cuddle her when I miss my mommy and daddy. Flint's a boy though. Sometimes he just wants to do boy things like climb trees and dig holes."<br>"Aw, well sheila ya gotta remember that he doesn't have any other little boys ta play with," Dino-Rang said as he knelt down to squeeze Izzy's shoulder gently with a clawed hand. "Sometimes ya might have ta do boy things especially if ya make him do girl things. It's only fair, right?"  
>"I guess," she sighed in a way that meant she only said it to end the conversation.<p>

"Come on then, go check on them and see if they're still playing and not in time out, then," Wu said as he gently placed his hands on the backs of Izzy's shoulders and ushered her back the way they had come.  
>Dino-Rang stood back up and waited for Wu to return and nod that Izzy had gone before he turned back to face the second human in the room. "So where's Rod? Did he need ya in on this meetin' too?" the Skylander asked skeptically.<br>"Dino, has it been that long?" a familiar and rich voice asked. It was very theatrical and classic; hard not to recognize. "I would have thought that even with the spell in action you would have recognized me."  
>The saurian narrowed his eyes and instead flared his nostrils to try and sniff out an answer. There were a lot of other smells in the room but he thought he could faintly detect a familiar one. "Lighting Rod?" he asked warily. "Okay. The spell I can see to help you blend in. Yeah. But you cut your beard and hair? You were so proud of them!"<br>"I hear the skepticism in your voice, please," he ushered Dino-Rang to one of the chairs nearby as he took a seat, "Join me for a moment so I can inform you of what its been like here for us."

Reluctantly Dino-Rang took a seat. The human had Rod's broad nose and he had to admit after seeing the dark skinned men in the plains Rod's overall facial shape fit well with the color. If it was Rod he blended perfectly in the physical sense with the humans.  
>"Firstly this spell is courtesy of your small friend. Izzy is a very skilled young lady. She lacks a tutor for her gift but we are doing what we can."<br>"Ya don't learn a spell like that by accident," Dino-Rang sat on the edge of his seat. "Someone's been teachin' the little sheila."  
>"Hex was teaching her," Rod said smoothly. He picked up the short, squat glass he had set duplicates of next to the chairs Wu and Dino were in as well as one other. He swirled the golden liquid around in the cup and inhaled deeply of its rich fragrance before he sipped at it slowly. "Tuaca," he held the glass up for Dino's scrutiny. "Vanilla liqueur. I know you have a sweet tooth. Never mind the early hour. If I remember correctly by now it should be dusk on the Isle of Light so consider this a nightcap for you."<br>The question burned at Dino's mind as he sampled the liqueur and nodded to Rod to let him know he appreciated it. "Hex _was_ teaching her? Has the sorceress run out of tricks already?" Dino glanced pointedly to the empty seat expecting the undead elf herself to float in, or walk as Rod himself had decided he needed to walk rather than float to blend in.

Rod's expression soured for a moment and he quickly drained his glass before he clapped it onto the table. "Hex is dead, Dino. Murdered when she went to the market and the wrap she wore on her head to conceal her ears came undone."  
>Thunderstruck Dino-Rang sat there with his jaw half open. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Wu lean back in his chair and bring a curled finger up to rest against his lips before he tried to casually brush a tear from his eye before anyone else could see it. "How," the saurian Skylander finally whispered. "She's undead. They can regenerate if they're as strong as Hex. She ain't some rotting robbie." Dino-Rang made sure to refer to Hex in the present tense; he still didn't believe it.<br>"You can't heal dismemberment."  
>Dino-Rang turned fast to see the newest addition to the room. Another man, this one with pale skin dotted with freckles had entered. He had flame red hair and green eyes so bright they almost appeared to glow. He was dressed in coveralls stained with grease, a dirty shop towel was in his hands and held so much grime it didn't seem to clean his stained hands at all. He even smelled of oil, grease and gasoline. A pair of welding goggles were perched on his forehead; the only thing that kept his jaw length hair out of his face. "Sprocket?" the Earth Skylander asked in awe.<br>The pale skinned figure nodded and moved deeper into the room. He took the drink that had been poured for him but refrained from sitting. "Welcome to the jungle, Dino. It's a wild ride out there." Sprocket too drank down his glass easily but set it back on the table softer than Rod had. "We lost Hex only a week ago. How far into the story are we, Rod?"  
>"Dino still doesn't believe us to be who we claim to be," the storm giant enchanted to look human replied. "We could always bring Izzy back in to lift the spell but I don't like making her drain her reserves on petty things."<br>"Eh, the spell should wear off in a few hours for me. She cast it last night so I could go on a gasoline run," Sprocket shrugged. He took his glass as well as Rod's empty one and moved back towards the mini bar to refill them. "Just hit him with a lightning bolt and be done with it," the golding shrugged as he uncorked the bottle of Tuaca and poured another round.

Rod sighed as if it were some great inconvenience and held up his two hands before he folded all of the fingers except for the index ones against his palms. He pointed them towards each other and held them about six centimeters apart before bolts of electricity jumped between them like live connections exchanging ions. He separated his hands and the bolts folded in on each other into balls of lightning. He crushed one and let the other float up to Sprocket. The golding froze and went wide eyed as the orb approached him. It got close enough to make the hair on his head stand on end before Rod extinguished it and Sprocket let out a long sigh of air. "Is that adequate for you, Dino-Rang? Perhaps I should request a demonstration of your skills from you to make sure you're who you say you are."  
>The dinosaur grumbled and adjusted himself in the chair again. His tail was too stiff for human chairs that had no understanding of tails. "I believe ya, then. But I still can't wrap my mind around Hex."<br>Rod rose from his chair and took the glass Sprocket had just set down for him. He threw his head back and drank it down just as quickly as the first. "Then let me show you all the proof we have."  
>Wu cleared his throat as he stood. "I am going to take my leave, gentlemen. I need to go to work. I hope to see you still here when I return this evening, Dino," the slightly yellow skinned man said with a bow before he excused himself. He hadn't appeared to have even touched his drink.<br>Dino-Rang frowned into the glass of Tuaca he had before he glanced to Rod and Sprocket. They had finished two already. With a shrug he guzzled his then went for Wu's abandoned drink. "Alright. Show me this 'proof' of yas," the dinosaur said as he tilted his head to either side to pop his neck.

Out past the barns and the modest field of crops, beyond the small flock of sheep and herd of cattle the little community cared for was an area that made Dino-Rang's stomach turn. Mounds of earth were lined up in neat rows. There were about twenty of them and all were unnamed. Except for one. Dino-Rang came to a stop at the bottom of the freshest mound. He didn't quite understand the wooden grave markers that each one bore, a single piece of wood had been driven down into the earth and lashed near the top of it in a perpendicular fashion was another piece. Sprocket had told him it was something humans did to honor and send their dead on with luck. Izzy had made each of the things the dinosaur now knew to be called crosses.  
>Propped up against the cross that had been topped with Hex's cowl was a plaque made from metal and inscribed with words of praise and remembrance for Hex. "Beloved Skylander and mentor," Dino-Rang read the last line aloud. He placed his hand on the earth and shuddered, his connection with the element that entombed the body confirmed all he needed to know. Dino-Rang wasn't even aware of the fact he was crying until the tears splashed the brown dirt and darkened it. "I know all of their names now," the Skylander said through grit teeth. "I know each name of the people buried here. It's no longa a potta's field. Each of them deserve their own markas. Even if it's just their name." He sank down heavily onto the path that ran between the base of Hex's grave and the one below it. "Light, why must the dangas on Earth match those of Skylands?"<p>

Sprocket sat down next to Dino-Rang and extended a hand to grip his friend's shoulder. The spell was wearing off as he had predicted and the golding's natural metallic gold skin was slowly replacing the pale freckled disguise Izzy's spell had granted him. "In Skylands, has anyone else died?"  
>Dino's eyes stared at the dirt right in front of his muzzle as his breath kicked it up in swirls and plumes. "We lose new recruits and novices more often than anyone else. No otha Paladins or Guardians have fallen that I know of. I was taken in tha middle of a mission with Pop Fizz and Seraph along with Shadow, you know that dragon from Motleyville that's Sharpfin's right-hand. They were all alive last I saw."<br>"How many others have gone missing, presumably here to Earth?" Rod questioned next.  
>"Chop Chop's been gone for almost four weeks. Crusha went just a few days ago. We lost an Archon, Scylla vanished around the same time Chop Chop did. Slam Bam hasn't been tha same since Scylla was taken; he finally decided to tell her how he felt only to have her stolen away tha next moment. It feels strange ta speak of our loses then look around here and see how many others are affected outside our circle." There were more Skylander and Guardian losses than what he had said but honestly Dino-Rang wasn't too familiar with anyone not in the Paladin or Archon ranks. The dinosaur closed his eyes and simply listened to the earth under his head. He could feel the vibrations through it that Sprocket and Rod made from their slight movements just as Dino could sense the movements of the cattle and sheep he had passed to get out to the field.<br>"Do you need a moment or can we return? We're not completely safe out here, Dino. Sometimes the bandits do venture out this far. If we're spotted they'll bring more in and we'll wind up," Sprocket stopped speaking and merely set his hand in the dirt.  
>"Plenty of time ta rest and let stuff sink in when yer dead, right?" the reptile said bitterly as he shifted into a seated position then stood. "Let's go. I think I want a shower then a bed. I'll eat when I wake."<br>"We'll get everything ready for you," Rod promised. Dino-Rang still couldn't get used to the Skylander's voice coming out of the dark skinned man's mouth.

They started the slow walk back to the farm, where the various residents were still working hard. It felt odd to see them doing the same things they had before he left, like the change Dino-Rang had just felt should have impacted on everyone else too, but of course it hadn't. Izzy waved from where she stood throwing a colourful ball back and forth with Flint and Oriel, and Dino-Rang managed a wave back to the youngster even though he was exhausted. With the news of Hex's death he felt like he shouldn't have been been able to manage as cheerful a gesture as that.  
>"Where are the showers?" Dino-Rang asked once they arrived back in the main house.<br>Sprocket pointed. "Down that corridor there, there's male and female bathrooms. It's to make things easier," the golding informed him. Dino-Rang nodded his thanks and headed in the direction Sprocket had directed.  
>He found the men's shower easily enough and stripped off his armour leaving it in a heap on the floor before he stepped into the shower with claws clicking on the tiles. He turned the water on and sighed with relief, slumping against the wall as the water washed over his scales, cleaning the masses of dirt, blood, sweat and dust in a torrent of water that swirled around the plughole before disappearing. Dino-Rang brushed a leaf that had been stuck down by sweat under his armour off and it got sucked down in a vortex of water.<p>

Eventually Dino-Rang left the torrent of the shower and wrapped a towel around himself. Then he knelt down, and turning the shower back on to a trickle, used his claws and the water to clean his armour. Once he was satisfied he dressed, though he scooped up his gauntlets rather than put them on before he shook the last droplets of water from his tail. He then went in search of someone who could direct him to a room. He couldn't find Sprocket or Rod and Wu had said that he was going to work. He looked around but after going around in circles he had decided to open any doors he passed in the hope that he could find the empty room. The first door he opened wasn't the empty room but it still contained some luck.  
>Lounging on the sofa, paying great attention to the television in front of her, was a lithe sand cat. She turned around and smiled at Dino-Rang as he entered. He studied her, wanting to know everyone who lived on the farm. She was like most of her kind with dusty fawn and white coloured fur and the distinctive dark bars on her forearms, legs and tail. She also had the streaks of pale rust stripes on her body. Her eyes were glass green with the repeated red stripes by her eyes and her pricked ears were a slightly darker rust brown than the stripes on her body. She was clearly a techie, unlike most sand cats, because a pair of welding goggles hung around her neck over a dirty gray neckerchief and her arms were streaked with grease. Her clothes, a sleeveless vest and rolled up pants, were permanently stained with black smudges, with the cloth around the stains being so faded that the original colours were barely visible as the red and blue they'd started out as.<br>"Hello. You the new one?" The sand cat asked him cheerfully, her wide eyes studying him the same way he'd just studied her. Dino-Rang just nodded in return, weary and not feeling like he could deal with another person just then.  
>"Not much of a talker, huh? I'm Click Lockpaw, one of the resident techies around here," she offered him a hand to shake. Dino looked down at the hand she'd offered. Her paw was stained black, the pads and webbing between her fingers oily. The sand cat noticed and withdrew her hand, ruffling her head fur sheepishly. "Sorry, I forget about that sometimes-," Click cut off her sentence and turned abruptly to the TV as a tune blared. Onto the screen appeared a newscaster, a woman who shuffled papers in front of her nervously. Dino-Rang wondered why, unlike most news readers, she wore a casual shirt. It had a black jacket over it in an attempt to look professional but it wasn't all that convincing.<p>

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. There is breaking news, just in. A giant walking stone demon was captured in the ruins of Chicago. The demon is currently being transferred to the New America research facilities."  
>The woman spoke like she was repeating lines she had been told to say, inflecting random words and pausing at odd times, almost as if she wasn't thinking over what she had to say in her head. The way she licked her lips and darted her eyes to something off camera often added a nervous air to her. She couldn't possibly be a proper news reader. Dino-Rang broke out of his misgivings when footage flashed up on the screen.<br>"Crusha," he breathed, shocked. The Giant was being hounded by humans, his sides scored with shots and rocks pieces falling off. Crusher was trying not to hurt those who attacked him. Instead he was trying to make a run for it but because of his size it was impossible. They blasted his knees and down Crusher went. Next they showed footage from a building that had a myriad of Skylands races trapped inside, electrodes strapped to their heads or their unmoving bodies laid out on operating tables. Dino-Rang felt sick when he recognised Chop Chop, who was being taken apart piece by piece. The worst bit was that as an undead Arkeyan construct Chop Chop was still alive during all of it, his yellow eyes glowing. Finally Crusher reappeared, doing a series of painful tests while humans watched on taking notes and looking fascinated. Then they were laying him out and examining his insides, and it was impossible to see if the Giant was alive during the process or not. The broadcast ended and Click turned around to Dino-Rang.  
>"Nasty, huh?" She sighed, staring with pity at the shell shocked dinosaur. He hadn't needed to witness the more horrific things that could happen to a Skylandian on Earth just yet.<br>"That…" he paused, shaking his head, his tired brain numb, trying to remember why he'd come there in the first place. "Where's the spare room?"  
>Click got up, and patted his arm. "Just down the hall, and to your left. Dream well, and without nightmares," she intoned the familiar good night blessing to him, and Dino-Rang nodded his thanks.<br>When he slept he did dream but not well. For he saw Breaker running towards him while Skylandians died around them, falling to humans and being taken away. "I miss you, Breaka," he mumbled in his sleep, tossing and turning as the nightmares got worse.

* * *

><p>Note from Seraph: <em>So bear with us, there will be some different languages used from this point on. We're still playing with how to show it being different while it's all going to read out in English no matter what. I think italics will be a good method when paired with reminders of what language any given character is speaking. So that means English, French and even Landian (oh I'm so smart calling the language from Skylands that, durhur) could appear in italics depending on useage.<em>  
>Note from Shadow: <em>The language that shows in italics will be that way because whatever character is the focus of the paragraphscene doesn't speak that language/isn't their primary language._


End file.
